


The Dark Druid

by vincentvandope



Series: Howlkyuu!! [9]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Gen, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29996541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vincentvandope/pseuds/vincentvandope
Summary: In case finals and college entrance exams weren’t stressful enough, mysterious visits and gruesome murders start occurring in Sendai. Karasuno seems to be at the center of the drama again, but everyone’s in danger, humans and supernatural creatures alike.(part 9 out of 12 of the Howlkyuu!! series. MANGA SPOILERS for what some of the third-years will do after graduation)
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kyoutani Kentarou/Yachi Hitoka, Oohira Reon/Semi Eita, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Shimizu Kiyoko/Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Series: Howlkyuu!! [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2127321
Kudos: 10





	1. Flightless Crow

The time had come for the rematch between Aoba Johsai and Karasuno, the definitive tie-breaker before the year ended and the teams changed. They’d been invited to Gymnasium 3 again, and Yachi watched from the bench, sitting between Saeko and Kiyoko. Kyotani spiked, narrowly evading Tsukishima’s block and landing a line shot. She started clapping before catching herself.

  
“Hey, hey, stop that!” Tanaka yelled at her, getting into place for the next serve. “You cheer for us, manager!”

  
“Sorry!”

  
Kyotani gave her a smile and a wink. Oikawa laughed loudly and let out a theatrical sigh. “Smart girl. She’s cheering for the winning team.”

  
“Shut up, Oikawa!” The referee warned Tanaka and he threw his hands up in indignation. When he raised the whistle again, Tanaka pretended to stretch.

  
They got to three sets, like they always did, but Oikawa had called it right. Aoba Johsai won the match, making the teams 3-2 and leaving them as the overall champions of their private rivalry.

  
Coach, teacher and managers were waiting in front of the bus for the boys when the late February breeze picked up. Saeko wrapped her arms around herself. “What if we wait inside?”

  
“See, you can tell which one of us went to college,” Coach Ukai said, opening the door. “You’re clearly the smart one.”

  
She gave him a few pats on his arm. “Who needs brains when you have beauty?” Saeko flipped her hair before walking into the bus. “I just happen to have both, but I’m greedy like that.”

  
“And you’re so humble too,” he chuckled while he offered Kiyoko an arm as she faced the first tall step. She accepted it out of politeness, but Yachi thought she probably didn’t need it.

  
She, on the other hand, did. In a practiced movement, Yachi rested the palm of her hand on his forearm and he pushed up to help her climb into the vehicle. But when her feet landed on the step, she clutched the handrails, recovering from the sudden appearance of the voices in her head. The coach went to follow her and stopped when she didn’t move.

  
“Yachi?” She turned around and he frowned. “Uh-oh. Is that a bad feeling face?”

  
“I… I think I touched your hand.”

  
“So it’s about me!” He forced a little laugh. “Great. You wanna try and see what it is?”

  
Yachi touched his hand again. She met his eyes for a second and looked away. “I think you should go see your grandfather.”

  
The fake carelessness on his expression disappeared. “Right now?”

  
“I think today. I’m sorry.”

  
Saeko put a hand on her shoulder. “Get in, baby girl. Go sit down.” Trying to keep it together, she started towards Kiyoko. “Let me drive. I’ll drop you off. Is he at home?”

  
“No. He’s at the hospital.”

  
“Okay. We’ll stop there on the way to the school. C’mon, you sit down too.” She lead him to the seat she usually took. “Shoot me a text and I’ll pick you up and get you home, okay? Whatever time it is.”

  
“Oh, man, you’re driving today?” Tanaka walked in and crossed his heart. “I’ll start praying.”

  
“Ryu,” she whispered, shaking her head no. He moved past her and looked at Kiyoko in confusion, catching Yachi’s about-to-cry face. She looked down and stared at the teardrops starting to fall on her clasped hands. He sat behind them, but didn’t say anything.

  
The rest caught on to the mood and filed in silently. Only the sound of traffic travelled with them to the hospital, where Coach Ukai got down after saying he’d see them the following day, and then it was whispers all the way to Karasuno High School.

  
. . .

  
Ukai Ikkei passed away in the early morning. They didn’t see their coach on the next practice, or the next, when the funeral took place. An announcement was sent to the hundreds of Karasuno alumni who’d been on the team with him as coach, but the ceremony was decided to be only for family and very close friends, to avoid crowding problems in the cemetery.

  
Daichi and Suga went that same evening to visit his grave, near closing hour. They walked hand in hand through the sea of stone until they arrived to the area designated for burials. Most people were cremated, so there were only three graves. And one of them was open.

  
“Please, tell me you don’t see it too,” Suga said, clutching the bouquet they’d brought for their former coach. Daichi didn’t answer. “Say it’s just in my head.”

  
He kept walking, leaving Suga behind, but he was fine where he was. “It’s empty. The coffin is broken.”

  
“Do we call Ukai? Is there a groundskeeper in this place? Who would take him?”

  
“Can you come look at this?”

  
“I’d really rather not?”

  
“I think it was broken from the inside.”

  
Suga took a step back. “You mean… Old Coach Ukai broke it? Like, he wasn’t dead?” Daichi started taking pictures and Suga made his way over to him. “Yeah, the way the wood landed… But how would they have missed he wasn’t dead? And how would he have, what, punched through the coffin? With no space to gather momentum? And then he lifted the stone by himself?”

  
“He was always pretty strong.” Daichi’s screen showed an outgoing call to their coach. “Do you think zombies could be real?”

  
“I mean… At this point, I’d hardly be surprised.”

  
“Of course not,” Coach Ukai answered when he arrived to the cemetery and they asked him. “Right?”

  
He turned to Coach Nekomata, who’d come from Tokyo for the funeral. “I’ve never heard of it, but I’ve learned to keep an open mind.”

  
Coach Ukai laughed and they looked at him, alarmed at his reaction. “He did say he didn’t want to be buried. He’s a stubborn asshole even in death.”

  
“So you think it really was him?” Suga asked. “He walked out of his grave?”

  
“In keeping with tradition, I have no idea.”

  
“We’ll do a location spell,” Coach Nekomata said, throwing an arm around the other druid and turning him around to leave. “If he’s alive, we’ll find him. If he’s not… I’ll keep thinking.”

  
. . .

  
Ukai unlocked the door to his grandfather’s home for the first time in his life. His home now, according to the probate lawyer. The house and all of its contents, along with some money, was what he’d been left by the old coach, which to ordinary people would mean a fully furnished home on the outskirts of Sendai, but to Ukai, it meant more. It meant all of the secrets about the supernatural world that he’d refused to share, unless it was all a cruel prank by his grandfather and he’d destroyed them before dying. But no, there they were, in his office. Bookshelves of annotated tomes, hand drawn illustrations, volumes penned by the old druid himself.

  
“Do you need a minute, Keishin?”

  
“No,” he turned his back to the office and found Nekomata’s kind face, “let’s get it done.”

  
Washijo opened the sliding door to the backyard. “I’ll start preparing the ritual.” He nodded at Asahi. “Come and learn.”

  
“Yes, sir!”

  
“Let’s find something to use,” said Nekomata, starting towards his grandfather’s bedroom.

  
They chose a t-shirt Ukai remembered seeing him wear a lot. The short sleeves were even wrinkled still, from his grandpa rolling them up to his shoulders. Ukai and Nekomata joined the other two druids outside, who were sitting on the pressed earth of the volleyball court. They’d set up a camping stove and were throwing ingredients into a small pot from which smoke drifted up into an upside down fishbowl, which was held in place with a metal tripod in order to create the crystal ball they would use to glean his grandfather’s location.

  
“Next, the hyssop.” Asahi took a jar and looked at Washijo. “Very good. And that was a hard one!”

  
“Thank you,” he said before checking a notebook to see how much he had to throw into the mix.

  
“You’re training him well, Keishin.”

  
He patted Asahi’s shoulder. “He’s a good student.”

  
Ukai helped Nekomata sit down and then took his place around the fire. After a couple more herbs and half a dozen mistletoe berries, Ukai threw the folded t-shirt in. There was only one ingredient left, and him and Nekomata both reached for the knife.

  
“Please, let me.” Nekomata retreated and Ukai took the blade. He cut open the fingertip of his left pinky and pressed on it so blood would fall into the pot.

  
The world seemed more silent than before while they waited for the grey smoke to change. The swirling patterns inside the fishbowl should turn white if the spell worked, and they would show Ukai an image of his grandfather, which hopefully would let him guess where he was. But it didn’t.

  
“You don’t see anything, do you?”

  
He shook his head. “It’s not working.”

  
“So he is dead, then.”

  
“But where is his body?” asked Asahi. “Was it… graverobbers? I don’t get why.”

  
Nekomata started to get up, leaning on Ukai to do so. “I’ll see if I can think of anything else. I have people to visit. You’re staying?”

  
“Yeah,” Ukai answered, turning off the stove, “I’m gonna start going through his notes.” They said their farewells and Nekomata went on his way. “If you don’t have too much school stuff to do, you could stay and look at the books, if you want.”

  
“Yes, I’d love to,” said Asahi, trying poorly to mask his excitement to be respectful.

  
“And you wanted to look for something too?”

  
“Yes,” Washijo accepted his help getting back on his feet. “There’s something I’m investigating for Ushijima, and your grandfather knew many things, so if you’d allow me to look at his notes, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

  
When they settled in the office, Washijo taking the desk and the younger druids sitting on the spare chairs, Asahi spoke. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something, coach. And since you’re here too, I thought it’d be a good time for it.” With their agreement, he continued. “It’s just that I’ve been thinking about something like a protection spell, but I don’t know if it would work?”

  
“I haven’t taught you any protection spells,” Ukai said doubtfully. “Is it something you’ve seen online? Because everyone thinks they’re a witch these days, but most people don’t know what they’re doing.”

  
“No, it’s just something I thought of. Came up with, I mean. I haven’t tried it yet, because I don’t know if it’s possible?” He laughed nervously. “I might just have been getting too excited about being a druid. Can you create new spells or is everything discovered by now, or… how does that work?”

  
“I mean, theoretically, I guess you could make up new spells, right?”

  
Washijo interlaced his fingers and rested his chin there. “Well, it’s not common, since so many of our rituals are so tried and tested by now, but someone had to be the first to create them. Although I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I have tried and failed before.”

  
“But druidism is mostly willpower, isn’t it?”

  
“And knowledge, Keishin. You can’t just wish things into existence, you need materials, you need to know what to use and how to use it. But there are many spells for protection, Azumane, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

  
“Well, yes, but I’ve just been thinking of an idea and I kind of can’t stop thinking about it?” Asahi grabbed a notebook from his backpack and leafed through the pages.

  
Ukai found Washijo giving him a curious look. “Well, that is interesting. We druids don’t tend to be innovators, knowing as we do ways that have worked for millennia. You might have found some innate talent, Keishin.”

  
“It’s probably no good.” Asahi found the page he was looking for and held the notebook up, unsure of which druid to hand it over to. Ukai gestured towards Washijo, whose opinion would probably be more useful anyway.

  
Washijo read in silence, nodding here and there. “How did you come up with this? We don’t usually integrate sewing into our rituals, but this is certainly interesting.”

  
“I’m going to try to be a fashion designer.” Asahi blushed a little. “Well, I guess I technically am one? But a successful one, is what I meant.”

  
“Interesting and thought through.” He passed the notebook to Ukai. “If you’d told me it was a spell by the druids of old, I would have believed you.”

  
“So… could it work?”

  
“You don’t lose anything by trying. Let me know how it goes.” Asahi’s phone rang with a text notification and he apologized. “Did anything happen?”

  
“No, there’s… a party, apparently.”

  
Washijo sighed. “Is it that Johzenji kid again?”

  
“Yes.”

  
“Fantastic. I’m starting to dread Fridays. These kids… What’s the excuse this time?”

  
“Finals.”


	2. Dumb With Math And Stupid With Love

“Don’t come back late! We have a party to go to!”

  
“There is probably nothing to find at the cemetery,” Ushijima said. “We will try to be back in time.”

  
“Not try, you will! I have to do your make-up and everything!”

  
“Okay.” He gave Tendou a peck on the lips. “See you later.”

  
Reon waved at Tendou and Semi before following Ushijima out. “See you, guys.”

  
“Be careful,” Semi said, followed by a dramatic gasp from Tendou.

  
“You never tell me to be careful!”

  
The setter turned to go back to his room. “You wouldn’t listen to me anyway.”

  
“True…” Tendou caught up to him. “Semi-Semi, your time is running out.”

  
“What are you talking about?”

  
“You have to ask Reon out now or you won’t get to say you were high school sweethearts!”

  
Semi turned around, but the door was already closed. There was no way they’d heard him. “Drop it.”

  
“Just tell him!”

  
“No.”

  
“He likes you.”

  
“He doesn’t.”

  
“He does!”

  
“Did you ask him?” He crossed his arms and stopped walking. “Because I distinctly remember asking you not to. Like, you made me beg. And I did. So it would be pretty low of you to-“

  
“I didn’t, but I know it!”

  
Semi laughed in disbelief. “You don’t know shit!”

  
“Listen, if you wanna go the coward’s way, just do it tonight! If he rejects you, say that you were really high and you didn’t know what you were saying. But you have to at least try!”

  
Semi rubbed at his eyes. He would probably regret it, but maybe by telling him, Tendou would stop insisting. “I tried once.”

  
“What?”

  
“When we started high school. We were going to be living in the same room, and my crush was worse than ever, so I decided to do it and he basically rejected me.”

  
Tendou was covering his mouth in shock. “Um, hi? Why haven’t I heard of this?”

  
“Because it was humiliating and you laugh at me every chance you get?”

  
“I wouldn’t laugh about that! Give me the rundown of what happened.”

  
“Nothing happened. He doesn’t like me.”

  
“I want a transcript of what happened, Eita. Reon is not Wakatoshi, but he has a healthy dose of obliviousness too, so give me the play-by-play.”

  
“I just told him that I loved him, and he said ‘yeah, I love you too’ and I said ‘no, like, really love you’ and he said ‘yeah, man, you’re my best friend!’.”

  
Tendou blinked. “He obviously didn’t understand what you meant.”

  
“Or he wanted to let me down easy.”

  
“No, Eita,” he slapped his back and smiled, “you’re just both stupid.”

  
“Thanks.” They started walking towards their floor again and Semi asked, “how did you start dating Wakatoshi? I feel like one day you were just dating. I don’t remember it starting.”

  
“I mean, basically! One day I asked him if he liked boys and he said yes, but I was smarter than you and proceeded to specify that I meant for kissing and stuff, and he said ‘oh, I guess’ and I said ‘would you kiss me?’ and he said yes, and I said ‘would you be my boyfriend?’ and he said yes again, so then I stood there like this,” he puckered his lips, “until he kissed me. And the rest is history!”

  
“Yeah… I don’t think I’m gonna do that.”

  
“Well, yeah, it would look pretty dumb on you. But we were like fourteen, so it was cute!”

  
Semi managed to get rid of Tendou with the excuse of homework and went to his room. Then he remembered that he actually did have homework, so he got to it. He woke up when the door opened, finding a drool stain in his unsolved math problems.

  
“I’m back. We didn’t find anyth-” Reon started laughing as soon as he saw him sit up. “Really, Semi?”

  
“Dammit.” He sat on his chair, still chuckling. “Stop laughing at me! I have enough with being useless.”

  
“You’re not useless. Let me see.”

  
Semi closed the book. “Don’t bother. What time is it?”

  
“Around seven.” Reon started flipping through the textbook. “You always do this. Just let me help you.”

  
“You can’t help me not be stupid.”

  
“You’re not stupid either.”

  
Semi snorted. “Yeah, that’s why I’m in class 1, because I’m so smart.”

  
“You’re in class 1 because you don’t care about most subjects. But you’re going to college, right? So you can’t be stupid. And you’re a musician, man. That’s hard.” He found the wet page and centered the textbook between them. “You’re good at what you care about.”

  
“Sure, like volleyball, right? Where I was replaced by another setter as soon as it was possible?”

  
“Stop it.” Reon took the uncapped pen Semi had been using and put the cap back on before lightly stabbing him on the chest with it. “You’re good at making plans for our missions. You always find the flaws in my ideas.”

  
With an eyeroll, Semi took the pen from him and stabbed him back. “You said it yourself, they’re your ideas. And you would find the flaws on your own.”

  
“Or not. Give yourself some credit, Semi.” He took the pen again and tapped it on the page. “Derivatives.”

  
“We should get ready for the party.”

  
“Come on.”

  
“Listen, they lost me when they mixed numbers and letters, okay? Those are two completely separate things.”

  
“I’m not giving up on you, so the sooner you stop protesting, the sooner we’ll be done.”

  
Semi met his eyes. Tendou was right, he had to try again. He couldn’t keep living like this. But not yet. “Okay.”

  
When they were almost done with his homework, Tendou knocked on the door, already dressed up. Well, if wearing a basically transparent mesh shirt could really be considered being dressed. “I came to check on your outfits. What the hell is this?”

  
“Math homework?”

  
“I’ll come back in half an hour and God help you if you’re not looking hot.”

  
Semi headed for his closet when he left, but Reon cleared his throat and pointed to the book again. When the problems were done at last, they started going through their clothes to see what they could come up with that would be approved by Tendou. The etiquette Terushima had set for the party was showing as much skin as possible, even though it was still technically winter. Apparently, he’d gotten body paint for black light, and it was mandatory for entrance to get at least a little painted.

  
Semi didn’t really have any options that were too revealing, besides going shirtless. Which gave him an idea. “If I turn a t-shirt into a crop top, do you think Tendou will let me go out?”

  
“Depends on how short it is,” Reon said, stepping back from his wardrobe. “I don’t know what to wear.”

  
“You can copy me if you want.” Semi picked up an old t-shirt and unfolded it. It was just plain red. He shrugged to himself and replaced the one he'd been wearing. “I think I’m just gonna rip it. And I keep saying that we need to get a mirror in here.”

  
“Well, we only have a month left, so it’s not really worth it. Here, I’ll do it. Hold it at the length you want.” Semi eyeballed it and pressed on the fabric over his ribs. Reon ripped the shirt up to his hands and then went around. His hands kept touching his stomach, his back, and Semi tried to think of anything else. “Done.”

  
He looked at his reflection on their window. “I think that’s okay? There’s skin, right there.”

  
“The criteria was ‘hot’, so I’d say you’re killing it.” Semi’s breath hitched and he coughed to mask it. He hid his face behind the door to his closet, pretending to keep looking. “Are you looking for something for me?”

  
“Yeah. Maybe if you wear something of mine it’ll be tight on you.”

  
“Good idea. Oh, you have that one muscle t, the sleeveless one?”

  
“The white one?”

  
“Yes. That’s tight and shows skin. And it’ll glow under black light. Is that hot enough?”

  
“Sure.” Semi gave him the shirt without looking at him. Then, he spotted something else. “Hey, if something is glow-in-the-dark, it glows under black light too, right?”

  
“Yeah, why?”

  
“You know what I have that Tendou would appreciate?” He grabbed the bag that he’d pushed to the back of his closet and smiled. “The glitter from Halloween.”

  
“That glitter was glow-in-the-dark?”

  
“Yeah, but I didn’t charge it in the sun. I think it’s for raves or something.”

  
“Stop.” Reon put his hands in front of his face like he was praying. “I got an idea that I’m going to regret so much.”

  
He refused to tell him, so they finished changing into their outfits and went to the bathroom, to have actual mirrors and to leave the glittery mess somewhere other than their bedroom. Not that it was going to help. Semi kept finding glitter flakes from his vampire costume at least once a week. The sinks stretched along the wall and Reon told him to take one corner and not to peek before going to the opposite one.

  
Semi did his best not to look, focusing on his own idea. Like last time, he got a bunch of moisturizer, grabbed a scoop of glitter, and mixed it together in his hands. He dabbed a little on his cheekbones, like highlighter, and spread the rest over his visible torso. He’d leave his arms free for the paint. Then, he applied lip balm and pressed glitter to his lips. Since Reon hadn’t said anything yet, he prepared a little more of the glitter moisturizer and gave himself an eyeshadow attempt.

  
“Do I look dumb? I’ll wash it off if it looks dumb. I was excited but now I’m not sure.” Semi turned. Reon was already walking towards him, and Semi’s breath caught again. He’d mixed the glitter with some hair product, and now his dark hair was shining iridescent under the light. His eyebrows were glittery too, and Semi forgot he’d asked him a question. “Okay, it looks terrible. I’ll-“

  
“No.” Reon looked ethereal. “You look- you look really cool.”

  
He smiled and Semi inevitably smiled with him. “You look good too.”

  
“Guys?” Tendou and Ushijima appeared at the door. Tendou screamed. “Oh, my God, I’m so proud of you! Let me see that!” He took Semi’s face and turned it in circles to see the glitter shift colors. “You didn’t invite me to get glittered up? Some friend you are.”

  
“The bag’s right there.”

  
“Don’t mind of I do!” He did the same to Reon. “Okay, wait.” He took a tube out of a pocket on his jacket. Mascara. “You have to commit to the aesthetic. Let’s get glitter on those lashes too.”

  
Reon took a step back. “I don’t know if I want glitter getting in my eyes.”

  
“It could fall from your eyebrows too! Hey, don’t you run away from me!”

  
Semi looked at Ushijima, who was looking at himself in the mirror with a frown. He looked uncomfortable, and he was making Semi uncomfortable too. His shirt was clearly Tendou’s, another mesh top, but this one in white. It looked less revealing than the black one Tendou was wearing, but it was extremely weird on Ushijima.

  
“You look good,” Semi said. He wasn’t lying, but his voice came out uncertain.

  
Ushijima got closer to the mirrors and zipped his jacket up. “I like the make-up.”

  
Tendou had given him winged white eyeliner and a little white heart on his left cheek. “Yeah. It’s gonna look cool under the lights."

  
“You got the wand in my eye!”

  
“You got your eye on it! Stop flinching, we’re gonna be late!”


	3. Where There Is A Flame, Someone’s Bound To Get Burned

Even if they hadn't known which one was the Johzenji's captain's house, it would've been easy to find. With music blasting so loud it made Semi wonder how he didn't get cops called on him, the Shiratorizawa pack walked together into Terushima’s house. Their host whistled suggestively while he handed Tendou the usual little bag. “Alright! You guys took it seriously! Do I have you to thank?”

  
Tendou slipped the wolfsbane pills into his pocket. “You know it!”

  
“That’s why you’re my favorite!” He looked at them one by one, stopping on Reon. “Oohira Reon, why haven’t I noticed before how good you look?”

  
“I don’t know?”

  
“Did you come here alone?”

  
“He came here with us,” Ushijima said. “We are all here together.”

  
“That’s not what I meant.” Terushima laughed, his tongue piercing flashing, eyes still fixed on Reon. “I mean that if you don’t have other plans for after the party, you should stay.”

  
Great. When Semi was almost convinced to try again to tell Reon that he loved him, he got competition. “I’m… okay, thanks.”

  
Terushima pretended to stab himself in the heart. “Ouch. The painting room is right over there, and your usual spot should be free. Have fun!”

  
They walked into the small room. The walls and the floor had been covered in plastic sheets and a table with buckets of paint was set in the center, brushes strewn around them. Tendou ran in and fully dipped his hands in two buckets. They came out glowing, one neon pink and the other, neon green. “I love this party!”

  
“And I love you, Tendou!” Terushima yelled from his chair.

  
“Come here,” he walked over to Ushijima and grabbed him for a kiss. When he took a step back, his colorful handprints were there on his neck and face. “Perfect! Who’s next?” Nobody answered. “Semi-Semi, come here!”

  
“Please, don’t kiss me.”

  
“Oh, you wish!” He took a brush and dipped it in the pink. “Give me an arm. Come on!”

  
Semi did, reluctantly. “I swear if you draw a dick on my arm, I’m breaking your hand.”

  
“I wasn’t going to, but it might be worth it…” Semi tried to get out of his hold. “Kidding! God. What am I, twelve?”

  
“I wonder sometimes too.” He shifted a bit as the brush tickled his skin. Tendou wrote his name. “That’s it?”

  
“My name is super cool!”

  
“It’s like I broke my arm and you signed my cast.”

  
“Hey, I can still draw a dick next to it.”

  
“I’m signing too,” Reon said, picking up another brush and dipping it in a bucket that seemed full of yellow highlighter. “Let me get that arm.”

  
Once everyone in the team had signed, even Semi had to admit that it looked cool. Reon did his other arm, flicking the brush so tiny splatters would land on his skin. His t-shirt got plenty of paint too, but it was worth it for the final product. Reon had used blue, yellow and white, and Semi’s arm had transformed into a galaxy. He did some bigger stars in white and then Semi took some brushes too. Reon had given him free range, but since his art skills weren't great, Semi decided to play it safe and painted simple flowers all over his arms, in every color except the green, which he used to join them in neon vines and leaves.

  
They walked up to their balcony, where Terushima had installed black light too, and once they started smoking and drinking, Semi kept getting distracted by everyone’s glowing patterns. Ushijima and Tendou were sitting on a couch across them, but he was sitting with Reon on an outdoor swing, and the movement was threatening to put him to sleep any second.

  
“Let’s play Never Have I Ever!”

  
“What is that?”

  
Tendou turned to Ushijima. “We take turns saying stuff and if someone’s done it, they have to take a shot.” He looked at their bottles. “Sip. Whatever. I’ll go first! Never have I ever been attracted to someone at this table!”

  
Semi’s nostrils flared as he shot him a look. Ushijima frowned. “Wait, you have not?”

  
“Of course I have!” He took a sip. “See? C’mon, now you.” Ushijima went for his bottle of water and Tendou stopped him, placing his in front of his face. “Nope, it has to be alcohol. C’mon. One sip won’t kill you!”

  
He took it, cringing. “I do not understand why you drink that.”

  
“For fun, baby! Did you guys drink? I missed it.”

  
“No, not yet,” Reon said with a laugh, and then he did. Semi tried to steady his hand as he raised his own bottle to his mouth.

  
“Who!?” exclaimed Tendou. “Tell me!”

  
Reon was still smiling. “That’s not in the rules of the game. I’m not telling, especially you.”

  
Those last two words hit Semi like a sucker punch. He’d had the fleeting suspicion every now and then that maybe Reon liked Ushijima, and if he wanted to keep it a secret from people, it made sense that top of that list was Tendou. He pouted and shook Ushijima’s shoulder. “Tell him to tell me! He has to listen to you!”

  
“I will not.”

  
“C’mon! Don’t you wanna know too?”

  
“I know.”

  
Tendou gasped. “Excuse me? And I don’t?”

  
“I promised not to tell.”

  
“But… I’m me. You have to tell me!” Ushijima denied him again. “I’ll never forgive you for this.” The current song ended as soon as he said that, and ‘Where Have You Been’ by Rihanna started playing. “Oh, my God. I love this song! Let’s go dance!” His grudge immediately forgotten, he led Ushijima back into the house, to go down to the dancefloor.

  
“Well, that was a short game.”

  
“Yeah,” Semi raised his bottle again, “I guess I’ll have to keep drinking without an excuse.”

  
“Let’s have an excuse, then. Let’s play Questions.” Reon moved to sit sideways in the swing, facing Semi. “You have to answer or drink.”

  
Semi’s heart was about to give out. “Um, okay.”

  
“I’ll start. What’s the constant rule of derivatives?” Semi rolled his eyes and went to take a sip, but Reon grabbed his wrist to stop him. “Come on. Think about it.”

  
“I’m high and drunk. I don’t know.”

  
“You do know. If f of x is constant, then f prime of x is…?”

  
Semi couldn’t look him in the eye, so he looked at the shifting rainbows on his eyebrows, dancing with the lights. Rihanna sang, and he wondered too, where his courage had been all his life. Not here. Not yet. “Zero?”

  
“Yes! See? I knew you could do it.” He let go of his arm. “Your turn.”

  
“Um…” Semi took a deep breath. Baby steps. “Do you like someone right now?”

  
Reon laughed and started lifting his bottle, but then he set it back down on his leg. “Yeah, but I’m trying not to.”

  
“What do you mean?” Now that Semi was looking into his eyes, Reon looked away.

  
“Well, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like me back, so… I’m trying to stop.” It was Ushijima. It was for sure Ushijima. Semi was going to throw up. “Semi?”

  
He blinked fast and stood up. “The music’s… I need to go out for a sec.”

  
“Okay.” Reon started to get up.

  
“No, don’t. I’ll be right back. I just need a minute.” He left the balcony, finding a bunch of kids he remembered from the training camp at Shiratorizawa walking towards it. Goshiki had probably invited them up. His first party and he was already bringing people up to their spot like he owned it. Well, he wouldn’t be doing anything without Ushijima’s permission, so it wasn’t Semi’s problem.

  
He’d forgotten his jacket on the swing and the street was very cold, but that’s exactly what he needed. He wiped the tears that had started to fall from the corners of his eyes and looked at the waning moon.

  
“Excuse me, I think I’m lost.” Semi turned towards the old man who’d just tapped his arm. “Is there a bus stop around here? I’m trying to get back to the city center.”

  
“Yeah,” Semi pointed to the left, “it’s a little farther that way.”

  
“Would you walk with me?” He smiled and linked an arm with Semi’s. “Walking uphill is not as easy as it used to be.”

  
Semi was a little baffled, but he started walking. “Yes, of course.”

  
After a while, the old man looked at him, amused. “You want to stop being a coward.”

  
“Excuse me?”

  
“I might be able to help with that. I’ll have to think about it.” They were at the bus stop and he sat down to wait. “I’ll find you again.”

  
“Yeah, sure. Um, good night.”

  
Semi started back towards the party. He must have misunderstood. Maybe he shouldn’t mix weed and alcohol. Maybe he should go home. But then he walked by Terushima’s front door, and Reon was there, Semi’s jacket on his arm. “Hey, are you feeling better?”

  
Even without the black light, Reon still looked breathtaking, the glitter sparkling under the moonlight. “Yeah.”

  
“Let’s go in.”

  
He followed him. They heard familiar voices in the painting room, so they turned to look. Some people from Karasuno were painting each other, and Yachi gestured for them to come into the room. “Hi! Is Tendou with you?”

  
“Not right now.” Reon spread his arms out. “We match!” Yachi had neon flowers painted all over her face, but hers were much better, more detailed.

  
“That’s so cool!” She had her phone out from taking selfies. “Let’s take a picture together!”

  
This Yachi was a far cry from the girl who’d tried to disappear into the couch when she’d been left with them by Tendou at the last party. If she’d changed that much, couldn’t Semi change too? Couldn’t he become brave?

  
“Done,” Kiyoko said, leaving a brush on the table. She’d just finished painting geometrical shapes and lines all over the shirtless wing spiker with the shaved head whose name Semi didn’t remember. With them was also Mad Dog from Aoba Johsai, who wore his hands and neck painted in white like a skeleton. Semi had been really surprised when he’d heard Yachi was dating him, but he seemed very different outside the court.

  
“Will you help me scare Tendou?” Yachi asked them.

  
Reon laughed and gave Semi a mischievous look, a rare expression on his face. “I don’t know about you, but I’m in.”

  
Yachi insisted that she could find him, that they just needed to hide her from Tendou so she could sneak up on him. Semi wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she sure did. Reon gestured for Semi to go ahead, so he walked over to Ushijima and Tendou.

  
“Hey, guys.”

  
“Hey!” Semi moved so Tendou would have his back towards them and Tendou fell into his trap. “Where’s Reon?”

  
“He said to meet him here. He must be on his way.”

  
Semi looked behind Tendou, where Reon lifted Yachi up and threw her towards Tendou. She flew and landed on his back, arms wrapping around his shoulders to keep herself from falling. “Boo!”

  
Tendou flinched and turned around, but he only found Reon, since Yachi was still hanging on to him. She dropped to the floor and Tendou did another 180º. “Blondie?”

  
“We’re four to five now! I’m going to win before you leave for France!”

  
“Only four?”

  
“Yes, I’ve been keeping count!” She started lifting fingers as she spoke. “First I scared you when I wailed for you in the forest, then the last time we were here, when I saw that I’d lost my ring, and then in the dealership, when I wailed on purpose!” She raised a fourth finger. “And right now!”

  
“Well, you also scared me when I saw that you’d eaten those pot brownies, and then you really, really scared me when they told me you’d been kidnapped.” Tendou patted her hair. “So you’re actually winning six to five.”

  
Her lip started to quiver. “But I was going to say that you can’t leave until I win!”

  
“Oh, this is war now, blondie. Now I’m not leaving until we’re tied!”

  
She seemed a little less sad after that, and a lot less sad when Tendou demanded that everyone started dancing, they were in a party after all. At some point, Tendou danced with Reon, and then he shoved Semi into his place, leaving after whispering to him, “try again.”

  
Semi wasn’t ready. That old man that he’d probably imagined was right, he was a coward. “Are you alright?”

  
“Yeah.” Semi tried to clear his head. “Yeah, I’m just a bad dancer.”

  
“Well, this music’s not the best to dance to.”

  
“Sure, that’ll be my excuse.”

  
“Come on, Semi!” Reon took his hand and twirled him around, the world blurring and refocusing on him. “Smile! You’ve been weird all evening!”

  
“Yeah. Sorry.” Okay. He was going to do it. So what if he liked Ushijima? He was very much off the market. Maybe, by some miracle, he liked Semi a little too and he'd settle for him. He was going to go for a kiss. He might have misunderstood his love declaration back then, but there was no mistaking what a kiss meant. He grabbed Reon’s arm and leaned towards him.

  
Reon put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. “Woah, you okay?” Semi stopped breathing. “Did someone push you?”

  
“What?”

  
“Did you trip? Are you okay?”

  
Again. He’d rejected him again. “Yeah. I- I think I’m a little… a little too fucked up, actually. I’m going home.”

  
“I’ll go with you.”

  
“No, stay.” He went to protest again, but Semi shook his head. “Please. See you.”

  
He left without catching the last thing he said. He needed to get out right now. He stepped into the street and someone grabbed his arm. “Hey! What happened?”

  
It was Tendou, so he turned, the tears feeling like they were going to freeze on his cheeks. “I tried to kiss him and he stopped me. He said he thought I’d tripped or something.”

  
“Okay," Tendou said slowly, "so he thought you tripped”.

  
“Or he was trying to save me the embarrassment of the simple fact that he’s not interested!”

  
“Why don’t you just talk like adults, Eita?”

  
“I just need this night to be over.”

  
“Semi-Semi-“

  
“Stop it!” Semi took a deep breath and dried his face. “I’m not like you, okay? I’m not fearless. I’m a coward, so let’s just accept it.”

  
“I’m not fearless either.”

  
“You’re braver than me.”

  
“What are you so afraid of? Don’t you wanna know? You’re putting your life at risk for others all the time and you’re scared of Reon not loving you back?”

  
Semi sighed defeatedly, because yeah, he was. “I can’t risk him. I could take it if he didn’t love me, but if telling him ruins our friendship too… We’ve been talking about getting an apartment together after graduation, Tendou. I can’t risk it. And you and Wakatoshi are both going away. I can’t lose him too.”

  
“He would never stop being friends with you. And I have a feeling that he loves you back! And my feelings are usually correct!” He gave him a confident smile. “They don’t call me Guess Monster for nothing!”

  
“I’ve seen you make plenty of mistakes too.”

  
“Just talk, Eita. Talk to him.”

  
“Not tonight. Right now I need to cry myself to sleep.”

  
Tendou nodded. “Classic self-care. Text me when you get to the Academy.”

  
“Okay,” said Semi, turning around.

  
“Hey,” he looked at Tendou again, who was already on him, bringing him in for a hug, “I’m sorry. I love you.”

  
Semi just sighed again. “I love you too.”


	4. Far Cries and Close Calls

Yachi had lost Kiyoko and Tanaka in the crowd, but she was dancing with Kyotani, so she was okay. Actually, she was getting a little chilly. “I’m cold, let’s go back inside.”

  
“I was just thinking that I’m hot. I can give you my jacket if you want to stay here.”

  
It smelled less like smoke and sweat out in the backyard, so she agreed. His jacket was way too big on her, but she liked it that way. She’d also asked him to get out of the main party because the voices in her head had been a little too loud, surrounded by so many people. But, in spite of it being almost March, there still were people in the pool. As she looked at them, the voices got more agitated. “Something’s going to happen.”

  
“What do you mean? Like death?” The wind whipped Yachi’s hair and he tucked it behind her ear. “Hitoka?”

  
“The pool. Someone’s going to die in the pool.” She caught movement our of the corner of her eye and looked up. There were guys jumping from the balcony where the Shiratorizawa had been last time. Someone did a flip in the air and landed in the water with a big splash. The next person stood on the railing and Yachi’s head started to pound. “It’s him. He’s-“

  
Yachi wailed but Kyotani was already moving. People ran away at her scream and he made his way through them. She couldn’t hear anything, but she saw the guy backflip from the balcony and she knew he’d break his neck against the edge of the pool. He hadn’t jumped far enough. She watched him fall in slow-motion and saw Kyotani jump and intercept him mid-air, making both of them fall safely into the water.

  
She felt someone put their arms around her as the wail ended and her vision went dark. Kiyoko was speaking to her, but her words weren't really reaching through the fog on her mind. Yachi opened her eyes and looked at the pool. Everyone was getting out. Kyotani said something to the guy who’d almost died and then he let go of him and swam to the edge, accepting Tanaka's hand to get out of the freezing water. Yachi saw Tendou and Reon walk out into the backyard. The latter was looking around, for any threats or danger that could've been the reason for the scream, Yachi thought, but the redhead just looked first at her and then at the guy in the pool, who she was now fairly sure was the guy with the straight bangs from Shiratorizawa who'd played at the Qualifier finals. Ushijima walked over to help him out of the pool.

  
“What happened, blondie?”

  
“He almost killed himself jumping from a balcony like an idiot,” Kyotani said, teeth chattering. “That’s what happened.”

  
Tendou and Reon joined Ushijima. “Tsutomu, are you okay?”

  
The guy didn’t answer. Everyone had fled from the backyard, but Oikawa and Iwaizumi emerged from the house. “We heard the scream. Kentaro?”

  
“I’m alright. Nobody died.”

  
Iwaizumi took off his jacket and Oikawa put it around Kyotani’s shoulders. “We’ll get you home.”

  
Terushima ran out in a panic. “Please, tell me no one kicked the bucket at my place.”

  
“No, man,” Tendou gestured to Kyotani and Yachi, “you got lucky they were here.”

  
The Johzenji captain looked at them and at the Shiratorizawa kid and then nodded towards his house. “Let’s get your clothes in a dryer, guys. And let’s keep the party going, people! Everything’s fine!”

  
Most people from Karasuno weren’t feeling up for a party, so it was only the three of them who’d gone to the party, but Suga didn’t take long to find out and call Kiyoko for explanations. At her own request, Yachi was left alone in the laundry room, still a little shaken.

  
When the clothes were dry, she dumped them in a basket Terushima had given her and made her way up the stairs. She could still hear the music, but it was less overwhelming, which was probably why there were little groups of people there, catching a break from the party. She knocked on the door to the bedroom Terushima had given to Kyotani and Oikawa opened the door. “Come in. Do you want me to get that?”

  
“Yes.” She handed him the basket. “It’s both of their clothes in there, so I need it back.”

  
“Sure thing.” He walked over to the en suite bathroom and knocked.

  
“You okay, Yachi?” Iwaizumi asked her. She nodded. “I hadn’t heard that yet.” He gave him a small smile. “You’re scary.”

  
“I scare myself too, trust me.”

  
“Kentaro, we’re leaving! Find us later!”

  
“Where are we going?”

  
“I just found out Akira was in that balcony too.”

  
“Are you sure? Our Kunimi? Did he jump?”

  
“No, but you better believe he’s going to hear me out anyway.” Oikawa smacked his tongue. “How am I going to leave you here alone with these wild kids?”

  
They walked with her to the next bedroom over, where the Shiratorizawa were. Tendou opened the door and Oikawa handed him the laundry basket without a word and left. Iwaizumi said goodbye before following him. “Are you okay, blondie?”

  
“Yes.” With the clothes delivered, she didn’t have anything else to do there, and she wanted to be alone anyway, so she just said, “well, I’ll see you later, maybe.”

  
“Okay,” he ruffled her hair, “if you want us to walk you home, come find me, okay?”

  
“Wait!” The bathroom door opened and the Tsutomu guy poked out. He’d jumped shirtless into the pool, so he was wearing his t-shirt and a towel. “Thank you. For saving my life.”

  
“It’s fine, don’t worry.”

  
“Yachi, right?” He put a hand to his chest. “Goshiki. And seriously, thank you so much.”

  
She nodded. “No problem. I’m going to go now.”

  
“Of course! Bye!”

  
She waved to the others and got back to the room Kyotani was in. “Hitoka?” The door to the bathroom swung open a bit and Kyotani walked out, slipping his shirt on. “Are you okay? Do you want to go home?”

  
“Maybe. I don’t know.”

  
“Want to lie down for a bit?”

  
She nodded and he picked her up, making her giggle, and set her down on the bed before lying down next to her. Yachi pulled him closer and breathed him in. “You smell good.”

  
“I showered. I was freezing.” He looked her in the eye. “So you’re saying I smelled bad before.”

  
“Well, we had been dancing for a while. You could’ve smelled better.”

  
He poked at her left side, making her flinch from the tickling. “So you’re saying I was stinky!”

  
“Not anymore!” She nuzzled into his neck. “Now you stink good.”

  
“Hmm…” Kyotani kissed the scar on her eyebrow. “I guess that could be considered a compliment.”

  
The door opened and someone stumbled in with a bottle in hand. “Sorry, I thought-“ Yahaba snorted. “Oh, it’s you. Wow. I guess the more shy they act, the bigger sluts they are, huh?”

  
He turned to leave, but Kyotani was already up from the bed and on his way to shove him. The bottle hit the floor and rolled away. Yahaba landed against the wall of the corridor and looked up at him with yellow eyes. “Apologize.”

  
“If you want to fight, let’s fight!”

  
Yachi had followed Kyotani, and she stepped in front of him. Yahaba sneered at her, but he didn’t understand what she was doing bringing a hand up to his chest, so he didn’t stop her. She pulled on the golden thread, making him gasp. “What-“

  
“What did you say to me?”

  
He made a pained sound. “I-I’m sorry.”

  
“I don’t think I heard you right.” Her voice was shaking, but he still looked terrified. “What did you call me?” He shook his head and coughed. “Don’t be shy, what did you say?”

  
“Hitoka?” She let go and Yahaba started gulping air. Kyotani put an arm around her shoulders and brought her towards him. She hadn't even cared that much about the word itself, it was more about the fact that the two times he'd talked to her, he'd made her feel powerless. But she wasn't. But now the corridor was dead silent and everyone was looking at her. “Maybe we should go home.”

  
“Blondie?” Tendou walked towards her and Yahaba got up from the floor. “What happened?” Ushijima appeared behind him and looked at Yahaba, who was still shaking. He took one look at the alpha, got up, and sprinted off down the hallway. “Kyotani?”

  
“It’s nothing.”

  
Kyotani looked down at her. “I think we should leave.” She nodded and he turned to Tendou. “We’ll find Kiyoko and Tanaka and we’ll go.”

  
. . .

  
Yachi had been left safely in bed, but she’d insisted that Kiyoko went home, that she was just going to fall asleep as soon as she closed her eyes, especially with the sound of the rain hitting her window. She regretted it deeply when she woke up alone in the middle of the forest.

  
“No, no, not again, please,” she whispered looking at the familiar trees. She wasn’t sure they were actually familiar, but the whole forest looked the same to her. She took stock of herself. Sleepwalking Yachi had grabbed her phone again, which was a good instinct to have. She wished she also had one for putting shoes on, because she’d walked to wherever she was on the fuzzy socks she wore to sleep, which were dirty and soaked from the mud. It had stopped raining now, but the earth hadn’t dried.

  
Kiyoko, as always, picked up at the first tone. “Are you okay?”

  
“I’m in the forest again. And I don’t have shoes again. And I’m really cold. I hate this,” she started sobbing and kept walking, “I don’t want to be a banshee anymore. It sucks.”

  
“I’m so sorry. Send me your location and I’ll be right there, okay? If you can wait for me, do it.”

  
Yachi saw buildings that she was sure she was familiar with and walked out to the border of the forest. “Actually, I know where I am,” she whispered, even more scared than before. “I’m next to Aoba Johsai High.”

  
“Okay. Send me the location anyway. I’m calling Daichi. Or Oikawa. I’ll call you back.”

  
Yachi watched the call end and looked for Kyotani’s contact. He took longer to pick up, enough to make her remember that she had a faster way to check if he was still alive. She focused, and he was. The call went through, his voice rough from sleep. “What? What’s wrong?”

  
“Oh, thank God. I thought it might be you. I’m at your school. Well, in the forest next to it.”

  
“Why?” His bed creaked as he got up. “How?”

  
“I sleepwalked again. There’s a dead body somewhere.”

  
“And they’re Aoba Johsai?”

  
“Maybe.”

  
“I’m on my way, okay? Give me a minute.”

  
“I have to keep walking.”

  
“Do you?”

  
“I… I think so.”

  
Yachi stuck to the path next to the forest and kept walking on her aching feet. She was going only by the moon, but even under its dim light, she saw that one of the trees looked wrong. The trunk’s shade looked different, and when she shone her phone’s flashlight on it, she could see its bark looked greyed, almost white in some places. And there was a thin rope, no, a wire tied around it. She looked towards the forest and found a leg that she’d first thought was part of the tree. Yachi could feel the wail coming, but she had to see who it was first.

  
She regretted her choice again. It was Yahaba, and that wire was buried in his throat, which had left the front of his white shirt stained with blood. Yachi wailed. Again, before she could hit the ground with her post-wail dizziness, she was caught by someone.

  
“No,” the voice wasn’t Kyotani’s, and Yachi was still feeling too sick to place it, “tell me this isn’t happening.”

  
“Fuck.” The second guy said it again, louder.

  
“This problem first,” the first one’s voice was shaking, “is there anywhere to sit her down?”

  
“I don’t see anything. And the ground is still mud.” Yachi’s felt herself being lifted off the ground. When her eyes started focusing again, Iwaizumi was wrapping a blanket around her. “Yachi?”

  
“I’m sorry.”

  
“Are you alright?”

  
She nodded as he put a second one around her legs, wrapping her up like a burrito. “Just cold. And tired. Thank you,” she looked up at Oikawa, who was holding her, “thank you.” He just nodded at her before looking at Yahaba again.

  
“We have to call the police. We can’t cover for this. His parents…”

  
Iwaizumi shook his head. “Hunters?”

  
“Hitoka?” Kyotani joined them and took her from Oikawa. Then, he saw Yahaba. He asked, “who did this?” but nobody knew what to answer.


	5. They’re Burning All The Witches Even If You Aren’t One

From what Semi was hearing while he stood guard before the doors of Conference Room B, the meeting wasn’t going well.

  
“You say you don’t have any reason to believe there are hunters in Miyagi.”

  
“I do not.”

  
“Then she did it!”

  
“Plenty of people saw them fighting at the party. She almost killed him right there! It was the banshee!”

  
“Her boyfriend was in the fight too. Maybe they did it together.”

  
“That’s ridiculous,” Oikawa said, but the room was chaos.

  
“She’s here, isn’t she? Let her speak for herself.”

  
“Yeah, why isn’t she here?”

  
“Semi.” Silence fell and Semi opened the door. “Bring Yachi.” He looked behind Ushijima, at Tendou. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen him angry. It was unsettling.

  
With a nod, he closed the door and left. Shirabu and Taichi were guarding the stairwell, and the first walked over to where Semi had been standing. Of course, he thought as he walked down two steps at a time. Of course Shirabu was taking his place.

  
Semi found the Karasuno people who weren’t on security detail or already in the meeting under the moon sculpture that always made him smile to himself. “Yachi? I need you to come with me.”

  
“Where?”

  
“You’ve been called to the meeting.”

  
She looked very scared but not that shocked. Like she'd been expecting it. Their tallest middle blocker asked, “why?”

  
“Can we go with her?” one of their pinch servers added.

  
“No.” Yachi seemed even more anguished. “Sawamura and Sugawara are there. And Tendou.”

  
“Okay.” She got up and started following him. “They all think I did it, don’t they?” Semi turned to her. “Someone said it earlier.”

  
“Really?”

  
“When we walked in.”

  
“Who?”

  
“I don’t know. It was a whisper, but like people whisper when they want who they’re talking about to hear them.”

  
“But they didn’t want you to know who they were.” Semi thought that he might be a coward, but at least he wasn’t that type of coward. “Pathetic.” He did notice now that people were looking at them as they walked. At her, more likely. She lowered her eyes to the floor and Semi held a hand out in her field of vision. She took it.

  
Shirabu went back to his post when they appeared. Semi took the handle and checked how Yachi was doing. “Are there a lot of people in there?”

  
“Most of them are on video call. You’ll be okay.” She nodded, but it didn’t look like that had helped her at all. It seemed quiet inside, so he lowered his voice. “Everyone who matters knows it wasn’t you. And you have friends in there.” She nodded again, this time with an attempted smile. “Go to the right. Ushijima is standing up, you can’t miss him. Are you ready?”

  
“Yes.”

  
Semi opened the door and the banshee walked in.

  
. . .

  
Yachi had been lying through her teeth. She wasn’t ready at all. But she tried to stand tall and not make eye contact. Thanks to Semi, she saved herself the moment of looking around like a lost puppy and just turned straight to the right, finding Ushijima right away. He didn’t look any more or less welcoming than at any other time, but Tendou got up from his chair and waved at her with a smile, gesturing for her to take the seat.

  
“Yachi Hitoka, could you please relate what happened last night?”

  
“Um. Yes.” Tendou put a hand on her shoulder and she took a deep breath. She explained everything she could remember, from her coming to in the forest to Kiyoko going back home with her.

  
“And where were you before waking up in the forest?” someone she didn’t know asked from the crowd.

  
“You will raise your hands and I will let you know when you can speak.” The man who’d spoken raised his hand. “Is it the same question?”

  
“Yes.”

  
“Yachi?”

  
“I was sleeping?”

  
“And-“ When Ushijima looked at him, he shut up and raised a hand again. There had been more hands up, so he nodded at someone else.

  
“Can someone confirm this?”

  
Yachi shook her head. Ushijima nodded to another person. “There’s no point to this. She should just be interrogated.”

  
“Yeah, and who’s gonna check-?”

  
“You are speaking out of turn-“

  
“-her memories, him?” the guy continued over Ushijima. “He could lie for his boyfriend. He’s good friends with the banshee.”

  
“I would not.”

  
“Let Oikawa do it!”

  
“I won’t.” He got up and addressed the crowd. “Shigeru was my beta and I’m telling you that I have full faith in the banshee. This was something else.”

  
“The banshee is dating an Aoba Johsai, so I wouldn’t trust Oikawa either.”

  
Daichi got up too. “This is a very pointless conversation, because nobody’s touching her.”

  
“Ushijima,” one of the oldest alphas present started, “if you refuse this, it’ll look like you’re protecting certain packs over the safety of the prefecture. You’ll be setting a very dangerous precedent. I agree that this girl doesn’t look like a murderer, but looks can be deceiving. Maybe you just can’t see the forest for the innocent-looking tree.”

  
“I’ll do it,” Yachi said.

  
“Yachi,” Daichi shook his head, “you don’t have to.”

  
“It’s okay. I’m telling the truth.”

  
Ushijima held her stare before turning back to the crowd. “The interrogation will be conducted by Shiratorizawa, but I will delegate the execution, if I am not trusted to do it. I will take suggestions.”

  
He pointed at the first person to raise her hand, one of the few female alphas there. “Just off of hierarchy, it should be your Head of Security, if he knows how to do it. And I don’t know if he’s ‘good friends’ or whatever some dumbass said before with the banshee, but I’d trust Oohira’s word.”

  
“Any objections?” There were none. “Semi,” the door opened, “bring Oohira.”

  
. . .

  
A small group moved into Conference Room A, which looked like a scaled down version of the other one. Yachi walked between Daichi and Suga, who had his arm around her. The woman who’d spoken and two other alphas who Yachi didn’t know were there to be neutral witnesses. Oikawa went in with them too, as well as Ushijima, who brought out a chair and told her to sit.

  
“You’ve done it before, right?”

  
Reon looked at Daichi and nodded. “Yeah,” he exhaled slowly, “once.”

  
“And you didn’t kill them.”

  
“Not that time, no.” He turned to Ushijima. “This is dangerous. I don’t think I should be the one.”

  
“You are the one they trust. And you know how to do it.”

  
“It was years ago, and maybe he survived it because he was a werewolf. She’s not even going to heal from the scratch. Quickly, I mean.”

  
“Her druid is on the way. You can do it, Reon.”

  
“I don’t think I’m going to die,” Yachi said, “so I think you’re good.”

  
“I could accidentally paralyze you. Can you know if that’s going to happen?”

  
“I do not think you are helping her.”

  
“Well, I’d love to be comforting, but this is real danger we’re talking about.”

  
“Honestly, it would be enough to just get through it as soon as possible?” She was shaking. She felt more nervous by the second.

  
Suga crouched down next to her. “Give me your hands. I’m here, okay?” He looked up at Ushijima. “I’ll hold her.”

  
He just nodded and looked once more at Reon. He sighed and lifted the back of Yachi’s hair. She bowed her head so it’d be easier and he lined up four fingertips along the start of her spine, making her flinch, even though the claws weren’t out yet. “I’m really sorry.”

  
The second time wasn’t any easier than her first, and when she came back from her blackout, she only understood a ‘sweetheart’ before feeling something wet pressing against the wounds on her neck. It stung, but the pain left her soon enough. “… okay? Yachi?”

  
“Yeah,” she smiled weakly at Suga, “I’m okay.”

  
“After the last time she saw Yahaba Shigeru alive, at the party, she went home with Shimizu Kiyoko and went to sleep. The next memory she has is of waking up in the forest, calling Shimizu, then Kyotani Kentaro from Aoba Johsai, and then finding the dead body.”

  
“Wow,” Oikawa deadpanned, “I’m so surprised. Totally thought she was the psychopath killing people with garrote. Who would’ve thought.”

  
“Thank you, Oohira. Let us resume the meeting.”

  
Everyone started to leave. “You can go, Suga,” said Coach Ukai. “I’ll get her back to the others.”

  
After cleaning the wound, applying some compresses, and bandaging it up, he did. They crossed paths with Reon, who was going back to his patrolling. They went back to the rest of Karasuno, and Kyotani was with them, having heard that she’d been taken to the meeting. Not long after they arrived, Kiyoko got there too, after Reon told her what they’d called him for.

  
In the end, they didn’t get to a concrete answer. The prevalent theory was hunters, so Shiratorizawa would increase surveillance around Sendai, for now. Yachi was free of suspicion, also for now. But, as much as she didn’t want to, she had a feeling there were going to be more bodies to find.


	6. After The Rain

Almost two months had passed since Kageyama’s brush with death, but Hinata kept waking up in the middle of the night, crying and kicking off the covers that had felt like a slab of concrete in his nightmare. Sometimes it was just the memory of it. Sometimes he didn’t make it to Kageyama in time. Sometimes Hinata was the one who died. Every single time, it was horrible.

  
He rolled off his bed and dropped to the floor, which was cold against his sweat-covered forehead. Hinata looked out through his window and saw that the lower half of it was covered raindrops. Outside it would be cooler than in his room, and it’d smell like fresh rain, and it would make him feel at least a little better.

  
Hinata wiped the water off a section of his porch and sat down, looking up at the stars. This was the place where everything had started. Where he’d been turned into a werewolf. Where everything had gone wrong.

  
“You want to stop being a werewolf.”

  
Hinata turned around. There was a guy in his backyard, leaning against a tree. He was older than him, but not by much. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

  
“I can help with that.”

  
“Who are you?” Hinata got to his feet and let his claws out.

  
“That’s not important. But I’m confident I could make you human again. What do you say?”

  
Hinata didn’t know how to react to this stranger. “How… how would you even do that?”

  
“It’s complicated.” He smiled in a somewhat familiar way, but Hinata was sure he didn’t know him. “I can’t do it tonight anyway. I’ll find you again. You think about it in the meantime.”

  
The next time he blinked, the guy was gone. He was probably just sleep deprived and upset. Hinata made a mental note to stop going into his backyard at night. Nothing good ever came out of it.

  
. . .

  
“You can take your hood off, by the way,” Reon said. “It’s been a while since it stopped raining.”

  
“Right.” Semi pushed it away from his head and a cold rush of air hit the back of his neck. “Actually, I think I’m gonna keep it on for warmth.”

  
“Yeah, it’s even colder now. But at least it’s not pouring anymore.”

  
They walked out of the side street they were travelling, into an avenue. There weren’t any cars, so they didn’t bother walking over to the crosswalk. Semi looked at the empty street, the traffic lights reflecting on the rain-slick pavement. No cars, no people. Good, because they hadn’t encountered any hunters. Bad, because their patrol was feeling more and more useless by the second, and Semi really wanted to go to sleep.

  
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.”

  
Semi swallowed and kept looking forward. “Yeah?”

  
“Yeah. You’ve been weird since the party.“

  
“I was really high, man. I barely remember the night. Sorry if I did something weird or anything.”

  
Reon paused, but Semi wouldn’t look at him. “Is that so?”

  
“Yup.” Silence fell again, and they kept on patrolling. Semi saw a silhouette in the distance, also crossing the street through the middle of the road, without bothering to look. He thought at first it was a little kid, but then the figure got up to the sidewalk, passing under a streetlight, and he recognized her. “Yachi?”

  
They ran to her, calling her name again, but she kept walking, disappearing from their sight. When they turned the corner, Semi saw the forest in the distance and realized where she was headed. “Should we try to wake her up? I think you’re not supposed to wake sleepwalkers up.”

  
“Uh…” Semi zipped down his raincoat and started taking it off. “No idea, but she’s going to catch something walking around in pajamas. Help me.”

  
He put the jacket around her shoulders as soon as they caught up to her, but when he tried to gently take one of her arms to guide it through the sleeve, she blinked back to consciousness. Yachi yelped and tried to get away before recognizing them. “Oh, my God! You scared me!”

  
“That makes three of us.” Reon took off his backpack and opened it, taking the pair of rainboots he’d been wearing earlier out of a plastic bag. What kind of person even owned rainboots? The kind of person Semi was uselessly in love with, apparently. “Here. They’re going to be huge on you but it’s probably better than walking without shoes.”

  
Yachi looked down at her dirty socks and nodded. She finished putting the jacket on and then held on to Semi while Reon helped her get into the boots. She looked swallowed by the clothes, but Semi thought she seemed to be shivering a little less. “Yachi, there’s a lot of people out tonight. They’ll find them, okay? You don’t have to go.”

  
“I think I do.” She was crying in earnest now. “But it just happened two nights ago! I’m sick of finding dead people! I can’t do it again!”

  
“I’ll let everyone know, okay?” Reon pulled out his phone and started to walk away. “We'll stay here with you.”

  
“Okay,” she hugged the jacket, still shaking, “I’m not going, I can’t.”

  
“Here,” Semi crouched down to zip it up. When he stood up again, though, he saw something disturbing. “Yachi… I think we have to find it.”

  
“No! Please. I can’t.”

  
“You’re crying blood.” She wiped at her eyes and gasped. In a panic, she cleaned her hand on the jacket.

  
“Oh, I’m sorry!”

  
“It’s fine. Reon?”

  
“Everyone’s on the way, we can… uh…”

  
“Yeah. I don’t think she can just choose not to go.”

  
“No…” Yachi was inconsolable and her eyes kept dripping blood.

  
“Do you have to see the body or just find it?”

  
She looked up at Semi, not understanding. “What do you mean?”

  
“You find them sleepwalking, right? You just know where the bodies are. So what if you keep walking with your eyes closed?” He held a hand out to her again. “Lead us there and don’t look.”

  
Yachi sniffled and the next tears to fall down her eyes were clear. “Okay. Okay, I can do that.” She took his hand, Reon stood on her other side, and they slowly started towards the forest at her unsteady pace.

  
Once they stepped into the forest floor, much more irregular than the streets of Sendai, the ridiculously big boots proved to be a big problem, so they had to develop a new system. Instead of their hands, she was now holding on to their arms, and they kept lifting her up in the air when they came across any rocks, or roots, or they were going uphill. They let her down as much as possible so she could make sure they were still going the right way, but she spent most of the hike in the air. Looking like she did in the oversized jacket and boots, Semi thought that they must have looked to an outsider like parents swinging their daughter by the arms.

  
Semi saw the grey tree right before Yachi wailed. He’d never heard it up close before, and he thought it must hurt her to scream like that. Or maybe it was just his own ears that were hurtinng. Semi couldn’t see the dead body at first, but then he saw the glint of the wire around the trunk, and that’s when he realized that what he'd thought was just more rotten bark was actually someone very small. A kid.

  
Yachi's voice cut off and she slumped, but he was ready. Reon checked that he had her secured and approached the tree. Semi heard running steps, two people, and got his fangs out, but it was just two Aoba Johsai, part of the collaboration effort with Oikawa.

  
“We found them,” Matsukawa said.

  
“Are they ours?” Oikawa was on speaker at the other end of the line. “Who’s the dead body?”

  
Yachi seemed to be coming back, so Semi picked her up. “I’m getting closer, alright? Don’t look.” He had one of his arms around her back and the other under her knees, and Yachi clung to him, hiding her face against him.

  
“Who is it?” she whispered.

  
“I don’t know,” he whispered back. “It looks like a little boy, but… he looks… old? Like a tiny old man. I don’t understand.”

  
Matsukawa was getting done saying basically the same thing to Oikawa. For a moment, it was only his breath as he run, but then he asked “is it Takeru?”

  
“I don’t think so,” answered Hanamaki. “But I’m gonna be honest. I’m not sure I could recognize him the way this kid looks. I don’t know that you could.”

  
“Does he have short hair?”

  
“Yeah, but it’s all grey.”

  
“Do you recognize the scent?”

  
Hanamaki sniffed the air and frowned. “I’m only getting rot.”

  
Oikawa and Iwaizumi arrived. “Let me see.” Reon took a step back and Oikawa looked sick at the sight of the child. “It could be him. God, it could be-”

  
“Hey! I’m so sorry to call at this hour.” Iwaizumi was on the phone. “Yeah, everything’s fine! Can you do something for me, though? We were out for a run and we- Yeah, no, we know it’s late. It’s just that we saw a kid walking around on his own and he kinda looked like Takeru and it freaked us out, so could you check that he’s in bed? Thanks.” Semi could see Oikawa’s fists shaking while he looked at Iwaizumi expectantly. “He is?” He nodded. “Okay. Thank you.” Oikawa exhaled and closed his eyes. “Yeah, we will. Thanks again. Good night.”

  
“It’s not him?”

  
“It’s not him.”

  
Yachi looked up at Semi. “Then who is it?”


	7. Dead Man Walking

“So no one knows who that boy was?”

  
“No.”

  
“And he wasn’t a werewolf.” Another negative. “So this isn’t hunters or an attack on Aoba Johsai. What’s happening?” Suga had no answer for Daichi, and Hinata didn’t either.

  
The pack had met at Ukai’s new home, to have a talk and to help prepare for the night. Everyone was scattered around, reading through Old Coach Ukai’s notes, looking for anything related to garrote, or ritual murders, or anything similar to what was going on.

  
“We’re in charge of moving the bed,” Kageyama said. Hinata just nodded and got up. “Are you okay?”

  
“Yes,” Kageyama hugged him all the same, “I just don’t like not knowing what we’re dealing with. That’s the worst part.”

  
“Listen, if they send us home tonight, you come over to my house or I stay with you.” He brushed the hair away from Hinata’s forehead and planted a kiss there. Hinata just held him tighter. “I don’t understand what’s happening, but I want to know you’re safe.”

  
“Okay.” Hinata stood on his tiptoes and kissed his chin. “Let’s go.”

  
They walked into the master bedroom and stood on each side of the bed. At the count of three, they lifted it up and moved it to the center of the room. Kageyama checked that the space left around it was enough for a person to fit and started straightening out the covers where they'd crinkled.

  
Yachi and Saeko would sleep there that night, surrounded by a mountain ash barrier. If Yachi started sleepwalking, Saeko would get out and get everyone else, and they would wait to see if she started crying blood again, and if it was necessary to let her out, they would at least be with her from the beginning. Besides, Coach Ukai’s home was next to the Sendai forest, so at the very least, she wouldn’t have to walk around the city at night.

  
“We moved the bed,” Kageyama said as they stood before the office, where Asahi and Coach Ukai sat surrounded by books. “Can we do anything else? Should we start reading too?”

  
Asahi turned to the coach, who was looking at his phone. “Coach?” He brought his hand down in a slow motion, left it on the table. “Is something wrong?”

  
“The druids from Aoba Johsai told us that they just got the news about Yahaba Shigeru’s autopsy.” Daichi and Suga walked up to them to listen. “Signs of a struggle, but no DNA from the attacker. And the cause of death was asphyxiation by garrote, but he also had metastatic stomach cancer that had spread to his liver and lungs.”

  
Daichi asked, “how was he even playing, then? And how didn't it heal on its own?”

  
“What does metas… what does that mean?”

  
Suga started to answer Hinata, but the coach interrupted him. “It means that he had stage four cancer. The exact same thing my grandfather had. And I mean exactly.”

  
“And what does that mean?” Kiyoko was at the door now too, so Hinata and Kageyama stepped into the office to make space for everyone. “It can’t be a coincidence, can it? The open grave and now this?”

  
Hinata looked at the shelves he was standing in front of. Mostly books, but there was one where there were some trinkets and framed pictures. He took the one that had caught his attention, of two guys with an arm around each other, and he pointed to the one in the right, interrupting whatever his coach was saying. “Who’s this?”

  
“My grandfather.”

  
“What do you mean?”

  
Coach Ukai frowned and tapped the glass. “It was a pretty straightforward statement, Hinata. That’s my grandfather and that’s the coach from Nekoma, back when they played.”

  
“But I saw him last night.”

  
“What?”

  
“I… I thought it might have been a dream, but I talked to someone last night. In my backyard. And it looked like him.”

  
. . .

  
Yachi had sneaked out to get some fresh air. Kiyoko wouldn’t leave her side, which she appreciated, but it was starting to feel suffocating. She was pretty sure nothing bad was going to happen while she was awake, and it wasn’t even that dark out yet anyway, so she went out to the volleyball court and let the chilly air brush against the healing wounds in the back of her neck.

  
“You want to stop being a banshee.”

  
She turned around and found a guy she didn’t know. “Who are you?”

  
“Someone who can help you.”

  
“How do you know that?” She took a step back towards the house. “And how do you know I’m a banshee?”

  
“Well, you haven’t been exactly subtle this last few nights, have you?” He gave her a sympathetic smile. “And being a banshee must be rough. I can help you with that.”

  
Yachi didn’t move. “How?”

  
“The details are complicated, but you don’t have to worry about that. If you want my help, you just need to be where I tell you to, when I tell you to.” He waited for her answer, but it didn’t come. “What do you say?”

  
Yachi desperately wanted to never see a dead person again. She wanted to stop waking up in the middle of nowhere, cold and afraid and alone, she wanted to stop hearing voices, she wanted people to stop looking at her like they hated her or were afraid of her or both. But being a banshee had also given her ways to protect herself. And although she’d found bodies too late, sometimes her power had saved people, like when she’d called Goshiki’s death soon enough to prevent it. As much as she wanted to be normal again, if she became human and something happened that she could have stopped as a banshee… “No. No, thank you.”

  
“Well,” he said, disappointed, “goodbye, then.”

  
“Wait, seriously, who are you?” He started walking away and she followed. She tried to see his life thread, to see if it was tied to anyone’s in the house, but she could see nothing on his chest. Yachi looked down, confused, but her own spool of thread was there, shining golden. He just didn’t have one. “Hey!” She ran towards him as he turned a corner and disappeared behind the house, but when she reached it, he was gone.

  
“Yachi!” Kiyoko ran towards her, everyone else spilling out of the house. “What are you doing? Who were you talking to?”

  
“I don’t know. I don’t know him. He didn’t have a thread.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  
“He?” Hinata showed her a picture of two guys in volleyball uniforms. “Was it him?”

  
“Yes!”

  
“Where did he go?” Daichi asked, making his way to her.

  
She pointed towards the direction. “He’s gone, though. It’s like he vanished.” Daichi told everyone to make a sweep around the house and Yachi took the picture frame Hinata handed her before leaving.

  
Saeko and Coach Ukai walked with her back into the house, where Asahi was already waiting. “Does this mean it’s him?”

  
“I think so. I don’t know how, but I think so.” Coach Ukai let out a long sigh. “I have to talk to the other druids. I’m way in over my head.”

  
“What was he here for?” Saeko asked her, rubbing her back comfortingly. “What did he say to you?”

  
“He said he could help me not be a banshee anymore, but I told him that I didn’t want to. Stop being a banshee, I mean.”

  
Saeko brought her closer. “No one would blame you for wanting to, baby girl.”

  
“He seemed convinced that he could do it, but I don’t know how he could. Maybe he was just lying.”

  
“He could do it just like he did everything else, right?” Coach Ukai looked at Asahi, and Yachi didn’t understand the heartbroken look on his face. “He would somehow give someone… whatever makes her a banshee. Like he gave Yahaba his cancer and that kid… his age?”

  
“My grandfather would never do anything like this.”

  
“Wait, what’s happening?”

  
“Oh, you missed a lot, Yachi,” Saeko said, leading her to a couch. “I’ll try to catch you up, but I’m not sure I understand everything myself.”

  
“But that is his body, right?” Asahi asked. “It has to be.”

  
“Yeah, it… it’s the only thing that makes sense. But he wouldn’t be killing people like this! Children? He always put the kids he was teaching how to play volleyball to above his own stupid health. And if he was able to do something like this, if he’d wanted to do it, why wouldn’t he have done it before?” Coach Ukai took a second to breathe. His voice had been getting louder and louder, but he spoke softer now. “Ukai Ikkei is dead. I don’t know who’s wearing his body, but that’s not my grandfather.”

  
Once the pack was reunited in the house, they went back to their reading. They were searching for more things now, like body-snatchers or zombies or possessions, anything that could remotely explain whatever was happening.

  
They had dinner together, a mostly quiet affair while they kept poring over the books, and then it came time to decide who would stay the night. Daichi and Suga insisted that it would be enough with them, in spite of Kiyoko’s protests, so they ended up sending everybody home except for the two who would be sleeping behind mountain ash and the owner of the house, who was staying too. Asahi offered to stay and keep working, but Coach Ukai told him to go and get some rest.

  
“But before anyone leaves, there’s something we wanna try out. Asahi?”

  
“Yes.” The ace opened his backpack and took out a paper bag before looking at Coach Ukai. “Oh, you want me to explain?”

  
“It was your idea and I’m not even sure what you ended up using.”

  
“Okay. So I’ve… I might have created a spell?”

  
“What?” Noya peeked into the bag. “How are you so cool, Asahi?”

  
“Well, I don’t know if it works, but maybe it’s worth a try.” He started to set spools of thread, actual, physical ones, of different colors, on the coffee table. One of them tipped and rolled over, but Yachi caught it and put it back in the line. “I boiled these threads in cinnamon, mustard and peppermint-“

  
“So that’s why they smell like that?” Noya took one and held it in front of his nose. “That’s kinda nasty, Asahi.”

  
“Well, those are herbs for health, travel and protection, respectively,” Coach Ukai defended him. “And it’s not like you have to eat the thread.”

  
“By the way, I had to use peppermint candies.” Asahi said, his face scrunching up in worry. “Will that still work?”

  
“I’m pretty sure they have real peppermint extract, so let’s hope. Remind me to take you out shopping for real herbs, though.”

  
“And I didn’t have mustard leaf, so I used mustard out of a bottle.”

  
Coach Ukai sighed. “Well, that’s still mustard. And the important thing is that you believe it’ll work.”

  
“Okay!” His face relaxed a little. “So, yeah. I’m going to stitch some of it on your clothes. Choose something that you’re going to keep wearing, or bring more clothes tomorrow so you have more options, but yeah, the idea is that if you feel in danger and you’re wearing this… magic thread, that the… let’s call it soup in which I boiled the thread will activate as a warning. So I will leave the spools here,” he extended a big sheet of paper on the table, which had quadrants and names written on it, “classified, and if it works and the… now I’m regretting calling it soup.”

  
“I love it!”

  
“Thanks, Noya. If the soup activates and the paper gets wet, we’ll know someone’s in danger.”

  
“That’s amazing, Asahi!” Noya threw his arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “How did you even come up with it?”

  
“Well, I was inspired by Yachi, actually.” He smiled at her and she smiled back. After the bodies she’d been finding, at least that made her feel a bit less useless. Asahi took out a needle. “There are sixteen colors, so pick one and line up. And again, I don’t know if it’ll work but…” he nodded and looked at their coach, “I’ll try.”


	8. What You Do You Want?

Since the police were out and about given the recent murders, the Shiratorizawa had decreased the number of patrols to avoid suspicion. Reon and Semi didn’t have a shift for the night, but Semi was awake all the same. He took his jacket and his keys and left the room quietly. He wasn’t the only one up on campus. Semi came across a couple of people going for a night jog, some kids smoking, a couple making out against a wall.

  
He got to the trees that marked the edge of campus and started to walk back to the dorms when a voice said from the darkness, “I’m back.”

  
Semi turned. There was a guy who could've been a third-year as well, but he didn’t recognize him. “Uh… sorry, do I know you?”

  
“The last time we met, I didn’t look like this. But you still want to stop being a coward.”

  
Had it been a disguise, the old man on the night of the party? “Is this a prank?”

  
“Nothing of the sort. I can help you, if you’re interested.”

  
“How?”

  
“Magic.”

  
Semi laughed his fear off and nodded. “I’m not feeling up to having my organs stolen or anything like that. Bye.”

  
“You’re a werewolf and you don’t believe in magic?” Semi froze. “Yeah, that got your attention, didn’t it? Listen, I’m busy tonight, but your conundrum is very interesting to me. If you decide to do it, bring someone whose courage you admire to the forest on the new moon.”

  
Semi looked at the sky. The moon was barely a sliver of white. “How would you do it?”

  
“The details are complicated, but here’s the simple version: you bring me the bravery you want and I’ll give it to you.” Semi’s first thought was of Tendou, and the mysterious guy smiled. “Yes, he’ll do. I hope you show up. Until then.”

  
He walked into the trees, but when Semi recovered from his surprise and tried to follow, he couldn’t find him. There wasn’t a scent and there wasn’t a trail in the forest, unless he was just too dumb to find it. Was he dreaming? Hallucinating? He was stone cold sober this time, that was for sure. Confused, Semi went back to bed, deciding that the stress was just playing with his brain.

  
. . .

  
Nobody had asked Hinata what Old-Coach-Ukai-but-not-really had wanted with him, but as he feared, his luck didn’t hold.

  
“Did he offer you something too?”

  
Hinata could feel Kageyama staring at him, but he kept looking towards the empty street in front of him. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  
“Was it the same as Yachi?”

  
“When you didn’t want to talk about you dying, I didn’t make you talk about it.”

  
“Well, I didn’t realize how infuriating it was from this side.” Hinata didn’t say anything and Kageyama walked to stand in front of him, blocking their way. “Did you say yes?”

  
Hinata had been pushing his bike and, sensing he wasn’t going to get out of this conversation, he got on it, to at least have somewhere to sit. “I didn’t say anything. He said he’d give me time to think.”

  
“He would kill someone to do it.”

  
“I know!” Hinata started playing with the basket on his bike. “I know that. I’m not going to do it.”

  
“Shoyo,” he looked up at him, “is it really that bad?”

  
“I hate it.” Hinata had whispered, but by the look on Kageyama’s face, he might as well have screamed. “What good has being a werewolf ever done to anyone? And don’t give me that ‘we’re stronger and healthier and whatever’ speech again.” His eyes were itchy and Hinata knew it was a matter of time before he started crying. “Since I got bitten, everything’s gotten worse. We get hurt all the time and people keep dying. I mean, you died!”

  
“I’m still here. And I wouldn’t be if I wasn’t a werewolf.”

  
“But you wouldn’t have been in that train depot if you weren’t one in the first place!”

  
Kageyama wiped the tears from Hinata’s face and he let him, focusing on trying to stop shaking. “The kid who died last night was just human. Not being a part of the supernatural world doesn’t protect you from it.”

  
Hinata knew that was true, but still. “I’m just stuck in Tokyo. I can’t stop dreaming about it. I’m scared all the time.” Kageyama held him tight and Hinata put his arms around his waist. “I’m so tired.”

  
“But there’s always something good, right? You always find the good in anything. That’s why I fell in love with you.” Kageyama’s voice trembled. “If you can’t find hope, then I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

  
“I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

  
“You could never.” Hinata buried his face into Kageyama’s sweatshirt, catching the weird smell from Asahi’s spell. “Hey, I know that you’re stuck on me almost dying-“

  
“You were dead.”

  
“Okay. I died and I became an alpha, and you say that I saved your life and that’s why it happened, but you saved my life too. You howled and you got me the help I needed. You saved me by being a werewolf. I’d say that was something good.”

  
“I guess.”

  
“And you’ve made a ton of friends because you became a werewolf. And you were really excited to learn about new supernatural creatures. That’s good, right? And maybe we wouldn’t have started dating without everything that’s happened. So that’s a good thing. At least I think so.”

  
“Me too. Those were all good things. Thank you.”

  
Kageyama was silent for a moment. “I don’t think I’d ever heard you say you hated anything before. But becoming human again won’t make the bad stuff stop happening. Being a werewolf at least gives you something of an advantage.”

  
“Yeah.”

  
“I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know how to make you feel better.”

  
Hinata dried the last of his tears and tried to give him a smile. “You just did. I’m sorry.”

  
“Don’t apologize.”

  
“I don’t hate it. I’m just… really tired.”

  
Now that Hinata wasn’t crying, it started to rain. Kageyama pulled Hinata’s hoodie over his messy hair, getting it under the fabric as much as he could before throwing his own on. “Let’s go. It’s still a long way home.”

  
“Wait,” Hinata said, pulling him down for a kiss. “I love you.”

  
Kageyama pressed his lips to his forehead for a moment. “I love you too. A lot.”

  
That night, Hinata didn’t get any bad dreams, but his body was so used to waking up in the middle of the night that it did it again. It had stopped raining and Hinata couldn’t help but to think of the other night. Carefully, he got out of bed and out of the house. It was cold in his backyard, so he hugged Kageyama’s sweatshirt closer. “Are you there?”

  
The wind rustled and young Old Coach Ukai stepped from behind a tree. “Have you decided?” Moron, Hinata thought. Kageyama hadn’t called him that in ages, but he should’ve kept the habit. What was he thinking, talking to this psycho who they were pretty sure was killing people in the forest? “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  
“I don’t want to do it anymore. I want to stay like I am.”

  
“Well, that’s disappointing. Goodbye.”

  
He disappeared behind the tree and Hinata heard running steps coming from his house. “What are you doing? Is he here?”

  
“He just lef-“ Kageyama hugged him, cutting his breath off. “I’m okay!”

  
“Ukai just called me asking if I was in danger! What were you thinking?”

  
“I told him that I didn’t want to stop being a werewolf.”

  
Kageyama closed his eyes, face flush with relief. “Get in. Let’s go back to bed.”

  
“Wait, Ukai called you?”

  
“Yeah.” He tugged on his sweatshirt. “At least now we know. The spell works.”

  
. . .

  
Yachi woke up in a strange place, but it wasn’t the forest. Right, it was a bedroom in Coach Ukai’s house. And yes, those were Saeko’s snores. Everything was fine. She looked at her phone, still plenty of time to get ready and go to school, and texted Kyotani to let him know that she’d slept through the night.

  
“Yachi?” Suga whispered from the door. “Are you awake?”

  
“Yes.”

  
“I heard you move and I thought you were getting up. Nothing happened, then?”

  
Saeko stirred and sat up. “Yachi?” She grabbed her arm. “What’s happening?”

  
“Nothing. It’s morning.”

  
“Thank God. I need to pee. Should I break the barrier?”

  
Suga nodded as Coach Ukai joined him at the door. “Are we good?”

  
“Yeah.” Saeko stepped on the mountain ash, scattering it around.

  
As soon as she did that, Yachi got a bad feeling. “Yachi? Oh. Sweetheart, do you have bad news for us?”

  
She didn’t feel the need to get up, but she knew. “There’s been another murder. But I think it’s already been found.”


	9. The Rotten Oak

“I know what it is.” Ukai closed the front door and led the druids to his grandfather’s office. His office, is what he should start getting used to calling it. “It’s a darach.”

  
“Do you think your grandfather became a darach?”

  
“No,” he said to Nekomata, “he spent years without practicing. What could have possibly made him a darach now?”

  
“Uh… What’s a darach?” asked Asahi.

  
Ukai turned the open book on the desk towards him. “So remember how one of the first things that I told you was that the word druid comes from the proto-Indo-European word ‘deru’? Remember what that meant?”

  
“Wise oak. They got the name from it because they thought oaks were sacred and a lot of druid rituals involved oaks. And 'deru' evolved into 'tree' in English.”

  
“Right, but from ‘deru’ also came the word ‘true’, and guess what the most common oak species in Japan is? True oak. And guess what the trees the darach has used in the murders have been?”

  
“True oaks?”

  
“Exactly.”

  
Asahi looked at Nekomata, Washijo, and then back at him. “I still don’t understand what a darach is.”

  
“Right, I got sidetracked. There is a legend that says that if a druid strays off the path, they become a darach. Just like ‘druid’ means wise oak, ‘darach’ means dark oak, as in an oak that has become rotten. Rotten like the oaks where the murders were committed!”

  
“So this is a rotten druid as in evil?” Asahi nodded to himself. “Well, yeah, I’d say killing people is generally evil. So are these oaks important? You’re fixating a lot on the oaks.”

  
“Well, I’m not sure. The true oak thing might just be a coincidence.”

  
Washijo looked at the book. “I’d heard of the story, but I’ve never heard of an actual darach. And I’ve met some questionable druids. Does it say how to stop it?”

  
“No, it doesn’t even say how it became one, just the vague ‘stray off the path’ thing. So I assume this druid did something real bad even before the killings started. Maybe that’s why they stole my grandfather’s body.”

  
"Nekomata?” asked Washijo. “Any ideas?”

  
“Many, but I don’t know what would work. It’s been doing things that we can’t do. It has power we don’t, and I feel like any binding spell we could do to try to stop him, it might just be able to break it on will alone. Especially if it already knows the spells we do.”

  
“Have you tried your spell yet, Azumane?”

  
Asahi had been sporting a hopeless look on his face, but at this, he lit up. “Yes! It worked! It went just like I hoped it would.”

  
“Wait. Did he invent a spell?”

  
“Yeah,” Ukai said, slapping Asahi’s arm, “apparently, we have a prodigy over here.”

  
Washijo cleared his throat. “That is promising. I’ll talk to Ushijima now that we know what we’re dealing with. We should probably have a meeting with the other druids. You should start thinking about this, Azumane. To trap the darach we’ll need another stroke of genius. Use our old ways as inspiration, but if you have another hunch, follow it.”

  
They read through spellbooks until the light went out, and Ukai kept reading on his own. Since sleeping behind mountain ash seemed to have cut Yachi off of her banshee abilities beyond the barrier, she had decided that she wouldn’t do it again, that if there was a chance that she could sense a death before it happened, she would take the sleepwalking over the guilt. The ones staying the night were Kiyoko and Tanaka: she’d sleep with Yachi while Tanaka took the couch, and the thought was that at least one of them would hear her walk out if she woke up. Ukai was planning on staying up anyway, to check on the threads and to keep researching, so hopefully she wouldn’t get out without anyone noticing.

  
Ukai’s finger tapping on the desk was making even himself nervous, so he grabbed a cigarette and his lighter and went out to sit on the porch. At least it wasn’t raining that night.

  
“You want so many things.” Ukai’s cigarette fell on the ground. “You are a real druid!” The darach extended a hand to him. “Nice to meet you.”

  
Ukai didn’t take it. “Who are you?”

  
“Why does everyone ask me that?” The young version of his grandfather rolled his eyes. “Does it matter that much? Because the truth is that I don’t remember.”

  
“Are you my grandpa?”

  
“What?” The darach looked down at himself and back at Ukai, mouth hanging open. “Oh, this was your grandpa? Oh… This is awkward.”

  
The cigarette was still flickering, so Ukai put it out under his shoe. “Why did you choose his body?”

  
“I didn’t, really. I just needed one. I think I was in some kind of limbo.” The darach shrugged apologetically. “I’m not sure how it happened. It kind of called to me. Was he a druid too? Maybe that’s why, because it had been touched by the supernatural already.”

  
This was not what Ukai had been expecting from an evil druid of legend. “How did you become a darach?”

  
“Is that what I am? That’s a nice name.”

  
Ukai was starting to wonder if he’d fallen asleep, because the situation felt too surreal. “Where the hell did you come from?”

  
“Well, I didn’t have anyone to train me, like you did,” Ukai refrained from correcting him, “so when I found out about all of these supernatural things, I tried to learn on my own. And when I got bored, I started trying out new things, but… well. I tried to become immortal and I lost my body in the process. And that’s how I ended up in this one, so… apologies.”

  
“Does that mean that you did it? Your soul is immortal now?”

  
“So far, it seems so, but I’m not sure. The problem with creating your own spells is you have no guarantees whether it’s going to go the way you want it to or it’s going to blow up in your face.” The darach looked wistfully into the distance as it spoke. “But I came here because I could feel that there’s many things you want. Like knowledge. And I could teach you things that regular druids can’t do.”

  
“I’m not interested in murdering people.”

  
The darach laughed bitterly. “Well, I used to think so too, but then I lost my body and it looks like my scruples were left in there.”

  
“What did you take from the man who you killed last night? What else did you need?”

  
“I didn’t take anything for myself. That sacrifice was for someone else. I know how to bring people back from the dead now!” Ukai’s eyes widened and the darach’s smile did too. “Oh… See, you say you’re not interested, but it’s not so easy to lie to me now.”

  
“I’m not. No one’s life is worth more than others.”

  
“That’s a commendable thing to say, but it’s not what you really feel.”

  
Ukai was feeling more and more unsettled. He got up. “If you didn’t do that murder for yourself, then why?”

  
“To learn if I can. That’s what I wanted immortality for. There’s so much I want to learn, so many theories to test out… and so little time. But now I have it!” He frowned. “I think.”

  
“No, you don’t.” Ukai felt around the pocket in his jacket where he’d opened the lining and sewn in a satchel of mountain ash. “I don’t know how yet, but I’ll stop you.”

  
“When you’re ready to learn how to bring people back from the dead, I’ll come back. But if I were you, I’d stay out of my way. Good night.”

  
Ukai watched as he walked into the forest and knew it was too late to try to trap him in mountain ash. He’d hesitated and he’d lost him, and he hadn’t even learned anything particularly useful. So, to try and make up for it, he went back to his tedious reading.

  
The sun came up, and there hadn’t been another death, so at least there was that. After taking the kids to school, he crashed in the guest bedroom. He woke up when Washijo and Nekomata rang the doorbell and they went back to work, being joined later by Asahi, who took notes of his own in a fancy book with blank pages that Ukai had given him. His grandfather had been a fan of taking notes in leather-bound books in his time, leaning into the druid aesthetic, and he’d left behind a few empty ones that Ukai had offered Asahi, who’d very gladly accepted them. Washijo informed them of the time and place for the meeting he’d hinted at, on the following day, and Ukai hoped that it would be enough time for Asahi to come up with something, because even after rehashing the night with the druids, Ukai didn’t have any clues on how to stop the darach.


	10. Not Quite A Victory, To Run From Your Problems, But It’s The Only Plan That I Got

Ushijima set down the two chairs he was carrying and went to speak with Washijo, who was trying to get his attention. They walked into a side room. “My focus lately has been on the darach, and I’ll get back to your question when this is over, but so far I haven’t found anything. However, Karasuno’s ace is a very promising young druid, and maybe he could help you. He’s been creating spells of his own. He might even be the one to take the darach down.”

  
“Can you not do that yourself? Create a spell for what I need?”

  
“I think for something like that, which has never been attempted before as far as I can tell… you need innate talent that I just don’t have. But I believe he does. We should pick his brain about it when our current problem is solved.”

  
“Wakatoshi?” Reon was at the door. “They’re here.”

  
The table was not big enough to sit everyone, so most of the werewolves that had been allowed to attend stood around it, while the thick of the packs was up in the music store. Not every pack had a druid, and not every druid felt capable of helping or was willing to take the risk, so the group against the darach would consist of Shiratorizawa, Karasuno, Aoba Johsai and Date Tech. Their druids and their leaders were taking the chairs, plus a Tokyo druid with Karasuno. Washijo and Ushijima made their way to the seats left for them.

  
Ushijima started the meeting and quickly gave the floor to his druid, who would be able to explain the situation much better than him. “And so, what we’re here to discuss, is how to find the darach and how to stop it. Azumane, you had been working on something, hadn’t you?”

  
“Yes. It’s not a plan yet, but I have an idea. But only for the stopping it part.”

  
His coach stepped in. “The darach said it would find me when I was ready to learn, so maybe if I call out to it, like Hinata did, it’ll come. I don’t know.”

  
“Or it’ll know something’s up,” the druid from Tokyo said. “You didn’t end on the best of terms last night. I don’t think it’ll show.”

  
“Um… I think I could find the darach.”

  
Ushijima looked behind him, to Semi, who was staring at him like he was trying not to look anywhere else. Next to him, Reon slowly turned towards Semi. He looked confused and, if Ushijima’s people-reading skills were getting any better, hurt. “How? Have you met the darach?”

  
“Yes. He said he’ll be in the forest on the new moon.”

  
“Where?”

  
“I don’t know. He just- It said to walk into the forest. No specifics.”

  
“That’s great, but that’s really soon…” Daichi said. “The new moon’s tomorrow.”

  
“No, it’s on Friday,” Suga corrected him.

  
“Yeah. Today’s Thursday.”

  
“What?” He checked his phone. “God, I need to fix my sleep schedule.”

  
“What did it offer you?” Ushijima asked Semi. He just looked down at the floor.

  
Ukai saved him from answering. “It’s fine, kid. That can stay between you two. The important thing is that we can work with this.”

  
Ushijima was not done with the conversation, but he could wait. “We will split. The druids can work on how to stop the darach and we will work on the plan to find it and get you the time you need. Is there anything else anyone would like to discuss or should we start?” Nobody spoke, so Ushijima nodded and got up. “We will leave this room for the druids. Everyone else please go upstairs to the music store and we will be up in a moment. Semi.”

  
He moved to the side room door and opened it. Semi walked in like he was going to his execution. Reon gave Ushijima a questioning look and he gestured for him to get in too. Tendou did not bother to ask permission and, at last, Ushijima closed the door behind himself.

  
Reon spoke before Ushijima could. “What did the darach offer you?”

  
Semi had gone back to staring at the floor. “Courage.”

  
Reon looked like he did not understand, which was just how Ushijima felt, but when he looked at Tendou, he knew that he did. “What could you need more courage for? You’re already brave!”

  
A bitter laugh from Semi. “Nope. I’m a coward.”

  
“How? What’s going on with you?”

  
“Not now. That’s not important, okay?” Semi took in an unsteady breath. “What matters is that I think if I walk into the forest on the night of the new moon, the darach will show up. But it’s not just me.” He looked up from the floor at Tendou, who started smiling even before he said it. “I have to go in with Tendou.”

  
“What?” Instead of things becoming clearer, Ushijima felt like he understood less with every new piece of information. “Why?”

  
“Because I’m the sacrifice.”

  
“No. You are not going. I will go.”

  
“I don’t think it’ll work. I’m sorry. When the darach said something about the courage that I wanted to have, I thought of Tendou and it said that he would work, like it read my mind or something.”

  
“How did you even consider it, Semi?”

  
Semi looked at Reon for the first time since he had spoken up. “Well, I didn’t know it was connected to the murders! Until today, I honestly thought I’d dreamed it. But the point is that if it’s not the two of us, it might know something’s wrong.”

  
“It’ll be fine, Wakatoshi!” Tendou’s devil-may-care front was starting to anger Ushijima. “You guys will be right behind us. We just need to draw the darach out and then you come in, easy-peasy!”

  
Ushijima faced him. “I am not sending you to your death again.”

  
“Again? I’ve never died! And nobody’s going to die this time either. We can ask blondie! If she says I’m not gonna die, will you let me go?”

  
“I do not like this. At all.”

  
“Well, I’m not thrilled about it either, but it’s our only chance to get this thing.” Ushijima shook his head and Tendou took it in his hands and kissed him. “I’ll be careful. It’ll be okay.”

  
Ushijima was not convinced. With a sigh, he put his hand on the door handle. “There are people waiting for us.”

  
. . .

  
“Will you tell me now what’s going on?” Reon said as soon as they got back to their bedroom.

  
Semi sat on his bed and started taking his shoes off, mostly to have an excuse to not look at him. “It’s late. Can we talk tomorrow?”

  
“Stop avoiding me.”

  
“I’m not.”

  
“You’ve been off since the party and you keep finding ways not to talk to me.” Semi was still looking down, so Reon sat on the floor so he had no choice but to meet his eyes. “What’s this courage thing about?”

  
Semi’s heart was pounding in his ears. “Please. Not tonight.”

  
“You can talk to me, Semi. We’re best friends! Or at least you’re my best friend.”

  
Yes. That was just the thing. He looked so hopeful that saying that would work, would guilt trip Semi into talking… but he underestimated just how much of a coward Semi really was. “I’ll tell you after all of this, okay? After tomorrow.”

  
“You promise?”

  
Semi got up and held out a hand to help Reon up. “I promise.”

  
He took it and Semi was suddenly enveloped in a hug. “You know if it’s anything I can help you with, I will, right? I know you don’t like asking for help, but-“

  
“No, no one can help me with that. You’ll understand later, okay?”

  
Reon took a step back and let go of him. “You promised.”

  
“I know.”

  
. . .

  
“You know what this courage thing is about. Tell me.”

  
“Listen, you made your promises and I made mine. I can’t tell you.”

  
“Satori, you will tell me.” Tendou headed for the bunk bed, but Ushijima grabbed his arm to stop him. “I have to know what is going on in my pack. Tell me.”

  
Tendou held his stare for a second before smiling. “Okay, you can’t say anything and you have to pretend that you don’t know, okay? Promise me?”

  
“I… promise?”

  
Tendou clapped and leaned against the ladder. “Okay, oh, my God, I’ve been dying to talk about this. Semi likes Reon. Like, he’s been in love with him since middle school.”

  
“And he wants the courage to tell him?”

  
“Isn’t it heartbreaking? Because I’m sure Reon likes him too, but he won’t listen to me. I mean, the truth is that the poor guy keeps trying and then he convinces himself that every minor thing is Reon rejecting him, but I don’t think he is, I think he’s just clueless.”

  
“Satori,” Ushijima took Tendou’s hand, “I am not supposed to tell. Swear to me that you will keep it to yourself.”

  
“Oh, my God. Ohmygod, don’t say it.”

  
“Promise.”

  
“I promise! Say it!”

  
“Reon is in love with Semi too.”

  
“Shut up!” Tendou turned around, run his hands through his hair, pretended to scream without making a sound. “Stop it! Okay, we have to tell them. This has to stop.”

  
“We cannot. We promised.”

  
“But-“

  
“Satori? Do not interfere.”

  
“But-! Ugh, fine. But I’m gonna make Semi try again and if he chickens out, I’m absolutely telling Reon.”

  
“Satori.”

  
“Okay, you know me! You knew what was gonna happen if you told me! I’m giving them twenty-four hours, and if by the time we come back to the Academy after the darach thing tomorrow they’re not making out, I’m breaking their door in and shouting it through a megaphone.”


	11. Love Will Have Its Sacrifices

Nearly everyone was waiting outside the dorms of Shiratorizawa Academy, but Tendou and Ushijima had walked back in to talk to Yachi. When she went back to her pack, Tendou quickly spoke over the protest that he knew was coming. “It’s too late now! We can’t come up with another plan!”

  
“I am not letting you go to your death!”

  
“Likely death! It’s not for sure!”

  
“Do not joke right now. She said it was a fifty-fifty chance. That is not good enough.”

  
“We don’t have a choice.”

  
“I have a choice. I forbid you to go.”

  
“Yeah? And what if I wanna go? You’ll stop me?”

  
“Yes.”

  
“This isn’t just about me, Wakatoshi. And everyone’s out there waiting.” Tendou looked past Ushijima, over his shoulder. “And here’s the end of the argument.”

  
Semi and Reon made their way over to them. Now, everyone was ready. There was no putting it off anymore. Tendou hugged Reon. “Be careful.”

  
“I’m always careful! Why does nobody believe me?”

  
Reon just gave him a doubtful eyebrow raise. Ushijima and Semi had the same interaction, but somehow, no one questioned the setter about his carefulness. Unfair, if anyone wanted Tendou’s opinion. He was swiftly crushed between Ushijima’s arms and, unable to move his own, Tendou just rested his chin on his shoulder and looked at the other two, getting into another hug. How was he going to keep what he knew to himself?

  
“Do not do anything stupid. As soon as the darach appears, you get out of there. You find me.”

  
Tendou leaned back to look into his eyes. “I know. I will. I love you.”

  
“I love you too,” Ushijima said before putting a hand on the back of his neck and kissing him like he was saying goodbye. Tendou stopped himself from complaining about it again. A fifty-fifty chance seemed like better odds than a full on banshee's wail to him. He did many fifty-fifty guesses playing volleyball, and he got them right most of the time. At the very least, half the time He was going to be just fine.

  
When Ushijima let Tendou go, Semi told him, “I won’t let anything happen to him.”

  
“Don’t be so dramatic, Semi-Semi!” Tendou smiled and started to open the door. “Nothing’s gonna happen to either of us.”

  
Once everything was in order, Semi and Tendou headed for the forest. They would go in first, the phone in Semi’s pocket being on an ongoing call to Reon, and they’d walk until the darach appeared. Once it showed up, Shiratorizawa would go in first to make sure they kept it there, and the other werewolves would help the druids surround the darach and start the spell. They hadn’t explained it too much, and what Tendou understood about that first stage of it was that they would be using some magic yarn and doing some hand-crocheting and that was supposed to somehow trap the darach. It sounded unlikely, but Tendou wasn’t the one with witchy magical powers, so he didn’t question it.

  
“I spy with my little eye…”

  
Semi turned to him slowly. “Seriously?”

  
“Branch.” Semi ducked in time. “C’mon! I spy with my little eye something beginning with T.”

  
“Trees?”

  
“Nope!”

  
“Uh… Trunks?”

  
“No!”

  
“Man, I don’t know. Timber?”

  
“No, me! Tendou!”

  
“You can’t spy yourself! Why do you always start games that you don’t know how to play?”

  
“I make up my own rules. That’s the best way to live!”

  
“And the best way to get arrested.”

  
“I’m glad you made it.” The darach said from behind them. When they turned, Tendou threw an arm out towards Semi, to grab him and run, but something grabbed him instead and pulled him backwards.

  
“Stop! I changed my mind!” Tendou’s back hit a tree trunk and he tried to break free. “I’ll stay a coward!”

  
“This is not only about you, I’m afraid.” The darach took out a knife and Semi reached for it, but he fell forward, his legs held down by roots. It started raining. He asked the darach to stop again, but a branch from a close tree wrapped around his extended arm and held him in place. “It’s only a little blood from you, don’t worry,” said the darach as it cut into Semi’s forearm. “Now, you just wait.”

  
“I’m calling it off! I don’t want this anymore!”

  
“Your opinion on this is no longer important to me.”

  
The branches that had come to life were rotting unnaturally fast, and Tendou got free as the darach stood before him. It smeared Semi’s blood on his forehead and the moment of confused pause made Tendou’s escape window close. More branches wrapped around him. The darach put the knife into a pocket and brought out wire, started to uncoil it. Tendou thought that maybe he was actually going to die, after all, and hearing Yachi’s wail in the distance didn’t help him stay positive.

  
The darach was looking at the tree and eyeballing how much wire it would take to prepare the garrote. “Hey, you should ask if I’m into it before trying that shit. Not to kink-shame, but I’m really not feeling it right now.”

  
Still manipulating the wire, it turned to Semi. “You might have mistaken his ability to joke when he’s scared as courage. We’ll see how you feel when it’s done.”

  
“Please. Please, stop it.” Tendou felt the wire bite into his throat and then the darach moved out of his sight. “Stop! Wakatoshi! Help!”

  
The darach said something, but Tendou was having trouble comprehending. His body was trying to heal, but the wound just kept getting worse. His neck felt at once cold from the raindrops and the blood and the night air against them, and hot from the cut that kept deepening, but the worst part was not being able to get any air in. He found himself wishing it’d just chop his head off. It felt like it was going to explode anyway. Tendou tried telling Semi to tell Ushijima that he was sorry that he’d joked so much about how he wasn’t going to die, because he was, he knew he was, and he blinked and when he opened his eyes back up the world had gone dark and he kept blinking, not understanding why the eyes that felt about to pop out of his skull were not seeing anything, and then, finally, he felt nothing at all.

  
. . .

  
Semi had finally gotten his second leg free when Tendou’s head dropped. His hands were bleeding, full of splinters from clawing at the rotting roots, but he’d managed it, and now he sprinted towards Tendou, just as Ushijima got into his field of vision. He pushed Tendou’s head up and froze, and Semi got to them and slashed at the wire, making wood chips and raindrops and sparks fly. Tendou slumped forward as much as the branches let him, and Ushijima snapped out of his stupor and helped Semi break him out. “I’m sorry. I'm so sorry." He shut up and listened. "He’s not dead.”

  
“I know.” He caught Tendou before he fell down completely and looked at Semi. “Take him and get out of here. Go as far as you can get and wait for-”

  
“I was using that.” Semi saw the sharp movement that made Ushijima cough, and then the darach was holding up the knife it had used to cut him, now bloodied up to the hilt. “Don’t interfere.”

  
Ushijima’s eyes went red before he turned. The darach looked taken aback and it raised the knife again, but Reon’s hand appeared on its wrist, stopping him before he could strike. Semi saw the place where the knife had gone in. If it hadn’t pierced Ushijima’s heart, it had been sheer luck. “Semi, go!”

  
He turned around, holding tight to Tendou. The rain stopped and he heard people running towards him, more Shiratorizawa, eyes shining. The trees came alive again, branches shooting around in the dark. One hit Semi’s thigh and he felt blood run down the back of his knee, and he realized they weren’t trying to hold them. They were attacking. He saw one coming at his head and ducked, losing balance and dropping both him and Tendou. “Be careful! It controls the trees!”

  
“Yeah!” Taichi punched a branch out of his way. “We noticed!”

  
Semi threw Tendou over his shoulder and got back up, hearing a panicked scream to his right. Goshiki was on the ground, holding a hand to the side of his neck and kicking at a root that snaked towards him, which changed direction and kept going towards nobody in particular. “Get up!” Semi said, offering his arm. “Are you okay?”

  
He uncovered his neck, but the bleeding didn't look too bad. “Yes! I think so!”

  
Semi looked towards the darach. It seemed to him that it was trying to reach the tree, and while the branches protecting the darach directly were being accurate, the ones farther away from it were darting around aimlessly.

  
“Don’t let it get to the tree! And don’t let it focus!” He put Tendou back down. “Goshiki, can you take him to the edge of the mountain ash? If the circle isn’t done, then go to the Academy, okay? And stay with him.”

  
He nodded with relief and picked him up, and Semi ran back to the darach. Ushijima and Reon were busy fighting off nature, but if they overwhelmed the darach enough, someone would be able to actually get to it. If they could make the darach unconscious, if it was even possible, then the trees would probably stop fighting them.

  
Semi tried to punch the darach’s head, but before he got to it, a sharp twig pierced through his wrist, sticking out from the palm of his hand. He instinctively pulled it off, letting out a cry of pain, and he stumbled, falling on his wounded hand, which landed against the tree. The darach turned around in his cocoon of vegetation and made space for its arm. It smiled as it grabbed Semi’s other wrist, and then they both were sucked into the tree.


	12. The Moment Of Truth

Ukai was doing his best with the hand crocheting. He’d never been one for arts and crafts, but Asahi had said that mistakes wouldn’t be too important as long as the pieces could still be connected and closed into a loop. But he wasn’t sure he could manage even that much in the dark. Saeko was holding her phone’s flashlight above him and Daichi warned him about roots or rocks in his path, but it was still a lot of different things to pay attention to, and a lot of pressure on him.

  
And then, that Semi kid from Shiratorizawa and the darach wearing his grandfather’s body fell out of a tree in front of them. “What the hell?”

  
“You,” the darach extended a hand and the roots of the tree lifted off the earth and held Semi down before he could get up, “you trapped me in mountain ash! I had a feeling you’d be a problem.”

  
Daichi roared, making Ukai jump. Too many surprises for his heart. He should quit smoking. “Regroup to Ukai! We have eyes on the darach!”

  
“Tendou!” Yachi exclaimed as Shiratorizawa’s number eight ran out of the darkness carrying the middle blocker. He stopped walking when he found Semi and the darach. Then, she gasped. “Goshiki!”

  
He rolled down on the ground, getting both himself and Tendou out of reach of a branch that whistled through the air and buried itself into the tree the darach had come out of. A true oak, Ukai couldn’t help but notice.

  
“It controls trees and it can travel through them!”

  
“What’s this about calling me an it?” The darach started to surround itself with branches and vegetation. “So dehumanizing.”

  
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Tendou croaked out, “we wouldn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

  
“Tendou, get out!”

  
The darach raised its arms towards him. “I’m sorry, but I still need him. Oh, please,” he muttered when Goshiki, visibly terrified, put himself in front of Tendou. “Well, you cheated death once. You won’t do it a second time.”

  
The darach’s arms were held down by Kyotani, who’d sneaked up on it from behind. “Actually, that was at least the second time. He’s very lucky.”

  
“Kentaro, move!”

  
He let go and dropped to the forest floor as a branch shot through the place where he'd just been and stopped millimeters from the darach. “Banshee, you’re very inconvenient. And that was a good try, but-“

  
A huge white wolf tackled him to the ground. Kyotani dragged himself away from the struggle and started helping Semi out of the greyed roots. Goshiki threw Tendou’s arm over his shoulder and kept going. “Wait, the barrier is up.” Ukai turned to Saeko. “Go with them and let them through.”

  
“Are you sure?”

  
Tanaka took his phone out and aimed the light at the yarn in Ukai’s hands. “Please. And get yourself out too.”

  
“You go with them to make sure they make it,” said Kiyoko, taking his place next to Ukai. Tanaka kissed her cheek and moved, getting under Tendou’s other arm.

  
The groups to their right and left, the rest of Karasuno and the Date Tech pack, were arriving at the scene. “Kid!” Ukai yelled at Semi. “If the darach wants you too, you should get out with them!”

  
“Hinata!” He heard Yachi’s warning on time and avoided the branch that had been going his way. The other first years surrounded the banshee, who kept yelling out names as she predicted the danger.

  
The darach got free from the white wolf and was pinned back down again and again, its fur showing red where it’d been cut, but now that the shifter had help, Ukai liked the odds better for their side. The kids were too fast for him to follow in the near dark of the new moon, but he was pretty sure Ushijima was there.

  
The forest around them was going mad, and the pack started to surround Ukai too, who decided to focus on the spell and let the werewolves fight the magical trees.

  
“Here!” Asahi appeared on his left and started knotting their pieces of crochet together.

  
Yachi let out a loud gasp but didn’t follow it with a name, so Ukai looked back. “Who is it?” asked Kageyama, but she didn’t answer. Then, Ukai saw Hinata’s orange hair as he jumped over their heads and deflected a branch that was going straight down for Yachi.

  
“Hold this!” Ukai did while Asahi ran to Date Tech's druid and started joining his piece too. “We have to get closer!”

  
They really did. Ukai was pretty sure that he’d seen Oikawa in the chaos, which meant that one of the two Aoba Johsai druids, at least, was in position too. They needed to finish this part of the spell quick. And they really, really needed it to work.

  
Asahi kept working, telling people to get behind the druids so they could close the circle. As less werewolves were in the fight, Ukai could see that they seemed to be winning. The white wolf was sitting on the darach’s legs and Reon was holding its arms away from the tree behind them, but the darach was barely struggling against them now, more preoccupied with Ushijima digging a wire into its throat. “Don’t kill the darach! We need it to stay in that body!”

  
“I know!”

  
Ukai found Asahi on his left again. “This is the last one! Get out!”

  
The wolf got up and ran between the both of them, and Reon started shoving the darach towards the tree, taking care of not letting it touch it yet. Ushijima took the wire from out of its neck and wound its wrists in it before telling Reon to leave. He held its arms in one hand, hauled it up, and slammed it against the trunk, and he kept holding it there until the crocheted spell was on the darach before letting up. He ducked under their arms and stood behind them to wait. “What is this? You think some protection herbs can stop me?”

  
There were herbs for protection, peace and success imbued into the yarn, and yes, Ukai hoped they could. Asahi made the last knot and let go, the other druids following his lead. The darach tried to get away, to rip the looped scarf they'd created, but the leftover yarn from their crafting group project started to knit itself over it. “The crystals!”

  
Ukai checked that his was still in his pocket and crouched down to dig. When it was deep enough for the piece of turquoise he carried, he threw it in and started to cover it with the displaced earth. Turquoise for truth and wisdom. Asahi had chosen garnet, for manifestation of will. The coach from Date Tech had brought amethyst, the stone of spiritual protection, while the ones from Aoba Johsai would be burying tiger’s eye and black tourmaline, for balance and cleansing negativity. At the other side of the true oak, out of Ukai’s sight, Nekomata and Washijo would be finishing the spell with obsidian, for grounding, and malachite, for strength.

  
“Done!” The other druids echoed with their answers, and Asahi nodded and brought out a switchblade.

  
The darach laughed through the yarn that half covered his grandfather's face. “Here I was worried about you, when I should have kept an eye on this one.” Asahi closed his fist over the blade and took a deep breath. “I would never have come looking for you. You don’t… want anything.”

  
Asahi pulled the switchblade out with a groan. Blood started spilling and he walked around the tree, painting a red circle around it. “I just want my friends to be safe. But I don’t need your help for that.”

  
“Yeah, you tell ‘em, babe!” Noya yelled from behind them. Ukai turned to find a crowd of werewolves. “I have the coolest boyfriend and he’s gonna kick your ass, loser!”

  
When Asahi ended his lap and the blood was connected, the visible parts of the roots began to shine. Under the dim light of the moonless night, Ukai could see the tree crystallizing. The stones they’d used travelled up the tree and over the darach, knitting themselves into shapes that seemed stitched, and before the first layer had reached the highest branches, the next crystal activated and started the process all over again. The darach had stopped moving under the first, and with each layer of stone, its shape became less and less recognizable as a person. As his grandfather. The last crystal to cover the true oak was the malachite, leaving every last twig and leaf shining with a troubled sea of different shades of green.

  
“It worked,” Asahi whispered, still incredulous himself.

  
Once Noya jumped to hug him, the tension broke and people started talking again. Ukai met Nekomata for a hug, and past him he could see the white wolf, with a tote bag around its neck, disappear into a thicker section of the forest. Hinata appeared next, but Kageyama stopped him. “I just want to know who the shifter is!” It took less than a minute for him to walk out, limping a little. “No way! Aone, you’re so freaking cool!”

  
“Thank you,” the giant from Date Tech said with a small smile.

  
“He really did it,” Nekomata said, back from walking around the tree to examine the aftermath. “You’ve found a really special one, Keishin.”

  
Ukai turned to look at Asahi, who was surrounded by most of Karasuno, getting hugs and slaps on the back. “Well, don’t give me the credit. They found him before I did.”

  
. . .

  
Tendou had insisted they waited outside the barrier, so they were sitting on the wild grass, doing just that. Waiting. Until Ushijima appeared in the distance. “I think it’s over,” Semi said to the teacher from Karasuno, “can you open it again?”

  
“Yeah, sure. Is it done? Is everyone okay?”

  
“Yes.” She took off when Ushijima answered, in the direction he’d come from. He dropped to his knees before Tendou and took his face gently, tilting it up to check his neck. “Let me see that.”

  
“It’s healing. It’s nothing.” Tendou grabbed his wrists and looked at Ushijima’s hands, the palms mostly red and cut into in many places. “What the hell is this? Are you okay?”

  
“This is nothing either.” He kissed Tendou and Semi looked away. He'd come so close to ruining something so perfect, and all because he was more scared of losing Reon than of facing a homicidal druid. “Never again. You are never doing anything like this again.”

  
“Okay.” Tendou started kissing his bloody hands. “I won’t.”

  
Reon got there as Goshiki was getting up. “I’m going back in to see if anyone needs help, okay?”

  
“Sure,” Reon said, not really paying attention to him. “Semi?”

  
He got to his feet. “I’m fine.” Reon’s yellow eyes followed the blood on his arms and he showed him his healing wounds. “It’s fine. I’m okay.”

  
Wordlessly, Reon pulled him in for a hug. Tendou said, “we’re gonna head back in to check on everyone, okay? You should talk!”

  
Semi looked at Tendou, who was mouthing ‘try again’, and he sighed and started to move away from Reon. He was still very much a coward, but he’d promised, and if he refused to tell Reon what was going on again, he might lose him anyway.

  
“Will you please tell me now?” He looked up at Reon’s gleaming eyes, seeing his own reflection on them, and took in a shaky breath. And then a step back. And then he let out that first breath and took another one. “Semi?”

  
“I’m in love with you.” Without a warning, he felt a tear fall down his eye. Damn, the air was cold. “I’m sorry. I know you probably don’t love me like that.” Reon just looked confused, and Semi wished he could walk into a tree and disappear again. “But I don’t want to lose you, okay? I’ve been your friend this long and I’m happy to just be-“

  
“Stop, stop. I… Are you serious? Since when?”

  
Semi closed his eyes. He'd ruined everything. “I don’t know. Since middle school. Since I met you, probably.”

  
“But I asked you out.”

  
Semi blinked. “What?”

  
“I asked you out last year! I asked if I could take you out for lunch and you said no because there was pizza in the cafeteria that day.”

  
“I didn’t understand that you meant on a date!”

  
“Oh,” Reon laughed a little, “well, I thought you were trying to let me down easy.”

  
“God. We’re both stupid.”

  
“What?”

  
“Nothing,” said Semi before kissing him. A miracle happened: Reon kissed him back.

  
“Wait, why didn’t you say anything?”

  
“I tried to tell you! And I tried to kiss you at the party last week.”

  
“When I thought you were falling?” Semi nodded and Reon gasped. “Oh, no!”

  
“I know!”

  
“I can’t believe we wasted so much time.”

  
“Shut up.” Semi met his lips again. “I’m so mad at you right now."

  
Reon laughed and hugged him tight. “I don’t know what you’ll do when you’re happy then.”

  
“Oh, I’m happy.”

  
“Yeah?”

  
Semi took Reon’s face in his hands and just… looked at him. “Yeah.”


	13. Try Again (Epilogue)

“And you promise this isn’t another study date, right?”

  
“Yes.”

  
“Okay.” Semi looked at Reon suspiciously. “Are you sure? Because it’s not that I don’t appreciate your help, but I’m sick of studying, and you have to be tired of helping me.”

  
“Well, I don’t have college entrance exams to prepare, so I'm not that busy right now.”

  
“How about living your life instead of putting up with me?”

  
“But I like spending time with you.” They’d been walking with their arms linked and their hands in their pockets, and Reon stopped and faced Semi, putting his free arm around his waist. “Especially now that when you say dumb stuff like ‘putting up with me’, I can just do this,” he kissed him, “and then you get distracted from your self-loathing.”

  
Semi closed his eyes and pressed their noses together, Reon's exhale tickling his skin. He could've stayed there forever. “Well, yeah. This,” Semi used his free arm to pull on Reon's uniform tie and found his lips again, feeling him start smiling through the kiss, “makes studying much better than before too.”

  
In downtown Sendai, the trees were starting to get beautiful again, spring getting closer by the day. Reon was taking them to the restaurant where he'd tried to take Semi that one time he'd accidentally rejected him, and once they’d ordered, he asked him, “are you sure you don’t prefer to go to the school’s cafeteria again?”

  
Semi brought a hand to his chin and pretended to think. “I don’t know. What’s for lunch today?”

  
Reon was laughing as he pulled his phone out to check, and he fully cackled when he read it. “Pizza.”

  
“Wait, really?” Reon’s laugh cut off abruptly. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” He put his phone away, and Semi couldn’t help himself. “Is there really pizza?” Reon gave him a look. “I’m just asking if it was a joke or you were serious!”

  
“I was serious.”

  
Semi pursed his lips. “Do you think there’ll be some pizza left for dinner?”

  
Reon tried to keep a straight face, but Semi could see the corners of his mouth struggle against a smile as he took his phone again. “I’ll tell Tendou to ask them to save some for you.”

  
“You’re the best. I love you.”

  
“I love you too.”

  
Every time still felt like a dream to Semi. He got up and leaned over the table to kiss Reon, and then Reon's fingers were in his hair to pull him closer. For someone who could turn into a werewolf, it was amazing what simple things seemed way more impossible than that.


End file.
